Best scene in TOS

[TomMazanec]

By Any Other Name​

When the Enterprise is shown zipping towards M31 and already out of the Milky Way, you see the Andromeda oval in the background. And all the foreground stars of the Milky Way are blacked out.​

 

[TomMazanec]

What is your nominee?

 

[Parson]

Captain Kirk deciding not to kick the Tribble out of the Captain's chair.

 

[Extollager]

Maybe the pure sword-and-planet scene here, with Captain Pike and Vina:

 

[paranoid marvin]

Obviously the scene with Spock forgetting himself and showing emotion at the fact that Jim was still alive is memorable.

But I suppose the best is in Space Seed, with the introduction of Khan Noonien Singh; the only character in TOS to have a bigger screen presence than James T. He gets overshadowed in all respects, thanks to an outstanding performance by the one and only Ricardo Montalban.

 

[Danny McG]

Episode Return to Tomorrow where Kirk gives his speech "risk is our business"
I was a schoolboy giving it wow the first time I saw this, it summed up the entire Enterprise mission.

Edit/update:- I found the script ...
You need to think of this with the Shatner delivery!

They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great-grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this. But I'm not because, Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk. Risk is our business. That's what the starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?

 

[BAYLOR]

Balance of Terror Spock ties into the bridge of the Romulan ship and reveal the Romulans are an offshoot of the Vulcans.

 

[Droflet]

Whoops.

 

[Valtharius]

"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"

 

[Droflet]

The Immunity Syndrome. I found this dialogue to be clever and quite funny:

KIRK: This ship is in trouble. We'd better start solving problems faster than we pick up new ones. We seem to be in the middle of a creeping paralysis. Mister Spock, analysis of that last burst of noise before we started losing power.
SPOCK: That sound was turbulence caused by the penetration of a boundary layer, Captain.
KIRK: What boundary layer?
SPOCK: Unknown.
KIRK: Boundary layer between what and what?
SPOCK: Between where we were and where we are.
KIRK: Are you trying to be funny, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: It would never occur to me, Captain.

 

[Brian G Turner]

One scene I remember most is from Spock's brain, when McCoy is trying to complete it at the end - he'd originally said it was so easy a child could do it, but by the end he's desperately struggling. Reminded me of Flowers for Algernon.

 

[Bramandin]

Probably not the absolute best, but I remember Scotty trying to get someone drunk, he succeeds, but then falls over.

My favorite is probably at the end of Trouble with Tribbles and it looks like someone is up in the cargo compartment throwing tribbles at him.

 

[Harpo]

 

[Dave]

@Harpo They aren't travelling through space. They have warped space and are inside a bubble that is moving sub-space. And, despite all the fan books, absolutely no one knows how that works!

I understand it is a joke, but there is more serious point here; that FTL travel through space is impossible, and yet it must be relied upon to tell any kind of meaningful SF story of galactic exploration. So, they're Fantasy. Unless we stop thinking in only four dimensions, but then speed, velocity, acceleration, length, height and momentum no longer have any value anyway. So, what Scotty says is still nonsense. So, you're right anyway!

 

[Harpo]

Another joke

 

[BAYLOR]

Kirk talking like a gangster in A Piece of the Action. He's a very good serious actor but, also has wonderful flare for comedy . He was hilarious in that episode.

 

[Danny McG]

When Scotty is justifying his bar fight to Kirk:-

Scott : Well, Captain, er... the Klingons called you a... a tin-plated overbearing, swaggering dictator with delusions of godhood.

Capt. Kirk : Is that all?

Scott : No, sir. They also compared you with a Denebian slime devil.

Capt. Kirk : I see.

Scott : And then they said that you were a......

Capt. Kirk : I get the picture, Scotty.

Scott : Yes, sir.

Capt. Kirk : And after they said all this, that's when you hit the Klingons?

Scott : No, sir.

Capt. Kirk : ...No?

Scott : No, er, I didn't. You told us to avoid trouble.

Capt. Kirk : Oh, yes.

Scott : And I didn't see that it was worth fighting about. After all, we're big enough to take a few insults. Aren't we?

Capt. Kirk : What was it they said that started the fight?

Scott : They called the Enterprise a garbage scow! Sir.

Capt. Kirk : I see. And... that's when you hit the Klingon?

Scott : Yes, sir!

Capt. Kirk : You hit the Klingons because they insulted the Enterprise, not because they...

Scott : Well, sir, this was a matter of pride.

 

[KGeo777]

It's hard to pick one
If you look at from the science fiction aspect and what the show is about thematically

then I would say

dramatic moments

when Kirk spares the Gorn
and Spock mindmelding with the Horta
and McCoy traumatized in the alley by thinking about 20th century medicine

Ship wise--the Doomsday Machine sequences


Comedy

The "Jim!" is one

Spock helping McCoy to install his brain

Harry Mudd and the robots



Capt. Kirk: Why, you're right, Mister Jones. They don't like Klingons.
But they do like Vulcans. Well, Mr. Spock, I didn't know you had it in you.

Spock: Obviously, tribbles are very perceptive creatures, Captain.

Capt. Kirk: Obviously.

 

[Swank]

The one where Kirk bemoans the situation on the planet below, sites the prime directive, and orders the bombardment of all settlements.