Favorite Star Trek Episode

[Mikey]

Nobody ever picks The Lights of Zetar

[Vortigern99]

I just watched "The Naked Time" on youtube (cbs)... and I hated it! Apologies to fans, but it was the worst TOS episode I've ever seen. The effect that the substance had varied so wildly from person to person, there was no consistency or credibility at all in the writing. Why would the people on the planet have shut down their life-support equipment? Just because they were "drunk"? It doesn't make any sense. And the "time-travel" denouement was pointless. Why send the ship back in time 71 hours, if they're not going to take advantage of it? Worst of all, Riley's off-key singing for at least 20 minutes of the episode grated on my nerves. Sulu's swashbuckling was fun, and it was interesting to see Spock express shame over his mother, but other than those highlights... What a stinker!

[Mikey]

It doesn't make any sense. And the "time-travel" denouement was pointless. Why send the ship back in time 71 hours, if they're not going to take advantage of it?

If i'm correct, The Naked Time and Tomorrow Is Yesterday was written as one 2-part story ark.

The idea was later scrapped and the two stories were re-written to stand on their own.

The remnants of this is visible in the no reason time travel part at the end of Naked Time.
Instead of 71 hours, it was going to be 300 years

[Vortigern99]

Okay, thank you. My wife was telling me about a later time-travel episode but couldn't remember the title. I'll check it out; maybe "The Naked Time" will make more sense after I've seen "Tomorrow is Yesterday".

But that still doesn't explain why the facility operators shut down their equipment and froze to death, or cover up the awfulness of Riley's singing.

[Eric]

"City on the Edge of Forever," without a doubt. I loved this episode even before I got into Star Trek.

[Vortigern99]

Just watched episode "The Enemy Within". Good sci-fi. Spock's insistence to McCoy that he himself was two personalities, submerged but waging constant war within himself, and surmounted only by his own intelligence, was stirring stuff.

The seriousness of it all was somewhat undermined by the ridiculous cocker spaniel in an alien suit (with that little rhino horn and those absurd antennae), but other than that: damn fine episode.

On a side note, Yeoman Rand always plays the sex object! First Charlie X, then Riley, and now Kirk's alter ego all have the hots for poor innocent Janice. Is there any episode in which she does something other than make the boys drool?

[Mikey]

Is there any episode in which she does something other than make the boys drool?

Well, on Miri Yeoman Janice had them blue scabs --- but I would have worked around them

[kryptosmaster]

I'm not good with episode names but two original series episodes that I always enjoyed were the one with Joan Collins and the one where they end up on the planet where Rome never fell.
On Next Generation I really enjoyed the series finale.
Never really cared for DS9 and watched Voyager sporadically but I did like the final episode of that as well. Wasn't really into Enterprise either but did enjoy the one where T'pal (or whatever her name was, Vulcan chick) was in the 1950's on Earth.
Rich

[palitoy]

Spock's Brain

[Joe90]

All great choices for TOS! They all have their appeal for me but for favourite episode I'd have to go with the first one I ever saw: Man Trap in September, 1966. I was eight years old and I witnessed a fantastic television show going to air for the first time. It had space ships, monsters, heroes, and something previously unseen -- a multi-ethnic cast. This last bit didn't seem progressive, or ground breaking, to my eight year old self. It just seemed like the future, I guess.

I have the DVD's and I've seen every episode a ba-jillion times, but nothing compares to the Wow! Factor of seeing that very first episode for the very first time.

That show's the greatest.

[vulcan2074]

There are Just So Many. I will for now have to go with Star Trek TOS Balance of Terror
Sammy

[HardyGirl]

All great choices for TOS! They all have their appeal for me but for favourite episode I'd have to go with the first one I ever saw: Man Trap in September, 1966. I was eight years old and I witnessed a fantastic television show going to air for the first time. It had space ships, monsters, heroes, and something previously unseen -- a multi-ethnic cast. This last bit didn't seem progressive, or ground breaking, to my eight year old self. It just seemed like the future, I guess.

I have the DVD's and I've seen every episode a ba-jillion times, but nothing compares to the Wow! Factor of seeing that very first episode for the very first time.

That show's the greatest.

Wow Joe...I was 2 months old to the day when "Where No Man Has Gone Before" aired. But that must have been so cool, seeing that groundbreaking series when it first came out. You're very fortunate, indeed.

[mego73]

The first Star Trek I ever saw was the animated Star Trek. For a while, I'd watch it along with the other Saturday Morning stuff and like it. But I seem to like this more than the other stuff. At that point I didn't remember specific episodes, but moments like Kirk and Spock swimming like a fish, a giant talking Godzilla like alien with wing, The crew being in a room that they could transform into any environment, the crew being sick with something that changes their color, etc.

It started to be obvious I was really taking a liking to this show so my mom said to me "You know this was a live action show a few years ago?" "Wow! They even have the guy with the eyebrows?" "Yes, he has the eyebrows and the ears" (on TAS, it was Spock's eyebrows that stood out to me before his ears. I didn't notice he had pointed ears before I was told that he did). I hoped they played the show sometime (at the time, they weren't). And I hoped even more when they ended the animated Star Trek on Saturday Morning (man, that sucked, I had just began to really like it and it's gone).

But it did not take long after that that the live action show was going to start being shown. I was ready to blast off into space, myself, even though I had to split the timeslot with my sister. One day I'd get to watch Star Trek and the other day my sister would get to watch Seseme Street.

I believe the first episode I saw (a few minutes late because we were getting home from shopping) was Cobromite Maneuver.

So, I think that the magic of seeing what was once a cartoon to me in vivid live action plus the fact that it's a really fantastic episode makes that one of my favorites (but I have a lot of TOS favorites).

My favorite TNG's are Inner Light, Tapestry, Best Of Both Worlds, Measure of a Man and more.

My favorites of DS9 include Shadowplay, Trials and Tribbleations and Blood Oath.

I thought the pilot of Voyager was pretty good and the "year of hell" saga

Enterprise is a show that really didn't get great until the end. Some of my favorites were Carbon Creek, I like the Dr Soong episode ark, The T'Pol revolution episode ark and In a Mirror, Darkly. Most of those are season 4 shows.

And back to the Beginning, animated Star Trek. I really love "Beyond The Farthest Star", "Yesteryear", "Ambergris Element", "Jihad", "Time Trap" and more.

[Mikey]

Best of Both Worlds is not my fav episode but I will give it credit for at least one thing....

It had the ultimate BEST OF THE BEST cliff hanger in the history of Star Trek.

[david_b]

I do have a special fondness for the Animated Series, because, at the time, it was the last we heard from the original cast.., at least until the movies came around much later, and it did have several distinquished episodes by some serious science fiction writers.

Some I recall being are much better than the later third season episodes..

As for favorite eps, I adore the early ones ('Where no man', etc..) just for the newness, and rawness of ideas.., almost as much as I love the mid-flight Gene Coon episodes which really brought warmth into the relationships, prior to their alterations in the third season by ol' Freddy.

Next Gen..? I love the first year ones for the same, wonky sort of newness, but nearly all in the third/fourth season were GOLDEN.

david_b