What's your favorite Star Trek episode? (any series)

Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Caveat 1: like many of us, I'm not happy with this "Trekkies" term

Caveat 2: swell off-topic root post

If I were a truly hardcore pop culture person, I'd have an episode to name for *every* Trek series, including the oft-neglected animated moment from the early '70s. But I'm only casually obsessed, so I'll have to settle for claiming that even though the "original" Trek is not my favorite series, the episode Mirror, Mirror is as close as I can come to calling one brief moment my favorite.

General Homsar's nominee is a close second for me, but I must confess to being a DVD-based fan of Enterprise. I would very much have liked to see it go for the seven or so seasons that seem to have been the producers' intentions, but I can't complain too much b/c I'm one of many who the producers lost to scheduling confusion and a steadily increasing bias against shows with big blocks of commercials.

p.s. On DVD, Enterprise actually innoculated me against what I used to call "Bakulitis." I'm not sure if I'll ever spend rental slots on Quantum Leap, but I'm no longer sure I won't. I've always admired Dean Stockwell's acting chops, and Enterprise has left me unable to reject Scott Bakula as just another half-pretty face with no interest in the stories he joins. He still makes me lose immersion now and then on account of actor-aversion, but I no longer reject a title automatically when he's involved.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Golly, forum burps can do odd things. This was a quote of my last post for a moment.

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I have never really liked Star Trek, though to be fair I did like Deep Space 9. But I wanted to ask what people see in the series?

The scripts are simple and predictable (especially the newer series), the story arcs never go anywhere, the Special effects are usually better than other comparative shows but other than that the shows just seem lack luster.

When I was younger I used to watch Star Trek voyager and Star Trek Next generation, but i was always disappointed with how every episode seemed to start and end the same. And after about the first 5-10 episodes I started to wonder why I had even bothered to sit down and watch it!

What makes it more interesting then say Blake's 7, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica(2004 series)?

These BTW my favorite (TV) space operas.

Ps. I come in peace. My intention is not to insult any Trekkies out there, I mean only to learn why so many people adore the series.

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I'm a star trek fan..

I prefer the original Star Trek series. I like the Mirror episode too.
Also, there was a episode about 2 planets waging war for a few 100 years
and the computers running it. I'm not sure what it was called.

On a side note, I'm a big fan of Space 1999 and UFO series.

Also, the last star trek series called Enterprise was a real let down.
The only series that didn't make the seven year mark.

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Ps. I come in peace. My intention is not to insult any Trekkies out there, I mean only to learn why so many people adore the series.

Then, and I mean this gently, go start a new thread about that. Don't disrupt this thread to ask a barely related question. While I have some things to say, I won't help you disrupt this thread to answer it. (I know you meant no harm, which is why I am trying to be nice)

Anyway, since you didn't restrict it to official series, I will have to say that "World Enough and Time" from New Voyages may be my new favorite, although I haven't seen much of the official series in a while. George Takei gives one of his best performances, and the story is quite touching in that classic Star Trek way.

As for the official series, two of my favorites are both from DS9, but I don't remember their titles. Actually, thanks to wikipedia and Memory Alpha, I found that name of one, "The begotten," but can't find the other, the one where they find a planet settled by their descendants.

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As a Series I like DS9 best. Because after the 3. Season the episodes build directly upon another. Similar to B5.
I have several favorite episodes from all series. Way of the Warrior (DS9), Blance of Terror (Classic), Apocalypse Rising (DS9), In the Pale Moonlight (DS9),
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (DS9), Tacking into the wind (DS9) come to mind.

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Quote:
Also, the last star trek series called Enterprise was a real let down.
The only series that didn't make the seven year mark.

TOS only lasted 3 seasons...

My favourite series is TNG, but I like them all.

I'm not sure which episode is my favourite, but two comes to mind when I think about it.

'The Inner Light' from TNG:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/episode/68556.html

'Whispers' from DS9:
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/DS9/episode/68150.html

O'Brien is my favourite character from DS9, though Bashir is a close second place.

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Boy do we have different tastes. O'Brien is one of the characters i dislike the most, right next to Troi, Tasha Yar and Wesley.
My favorite episodes usually have Q in them or the Borg or in some lucky cases both. With TNG being the favorite series followed by TOS.

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Boy do we have different tastes.O'Brien is one of the characters i dislike the most

So it seems.

One of my favorite Characters is Worf, because he has much depth.

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The only series I actually completely watched in chronological order was Enterprise; because of this, I'm afraid I'm a bit biased towards it simply because I know the whole story. However, as noctilus said, any episode with Q was good (I love when everything goes to hell because of time paradoxes), especially the final episode of TNG. Other than that though, I can't think of any episodes in particular.

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"Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra."

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"Darmok and Jilad at Tanagra."

That episode was not very logical. I mean those guys could beat the Flagship of the Federation and still they are just a minor race.

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That episode was not very logical. I mean those guys could beat the Flagship of the Federation and still they are just a minor race.

Sure it does. Just because you have the firepower to blow up a planet doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.

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I have never really liked Star Trek, though to be fair I did like Deep Space 9. But I wanted to ask what people see in the series?

The scripts are simple and predictable (especially the newer series), the story arcs never go anywhere, the Special effects are usually better than other comparative shows but other than that the shows just seem lack luster.

When I was younger I used to watch Star Trek voyager and Star Trek Next generation, but i was always disappointed with how every episode seemed to start and end the same. And after about the first 5-10 episodes I started to wonder why I had even bothered to sit down and watch it!

What makes it more interesting then say Blake's 7, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica(2004 series)?

These BTW my favorite (TV) space operas.

Ps. I come in peace. My intention is not to insult any Trekkies out there, I mean only to learn why so many people adore the series.

This is a good question. I am a fan of the series and the movies even though from a scientific point the show has many flaws. I think the answer lies in the characters. The original series had Kirk, Spock, and McCoy who each represented a different part of humanity - Intuition (Kirk), Intellect (Spock), and Emotion (McCoy). The interplay between these characters is very telling. The show features a lot of space stuff, but ultimately is about us -- who we are as a species and a society, and where we are going. In TOS and TNG, the problem with the show always starting and ending the same is a by-product of the fact the Earth has reached a type of utopian society and therefore there was not enough internal conflict between characters. DS9 and Voyager fixed this to a degree by placing the characters in non-standard Federation settings where Starfleet regulations are less dominant and there is more room for character aberations, lasting conflict between main characters, and ultimately more room for growth and change overall. Since things are not starting out as "perfect" as they are in earlier series, there is somewhere new to go with the story.

As far as the best episode ever? Clearly it is the 2 part original series episode "Guardians of Forever" by literary giant, Harlan Ellison.

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Something I forgot to mention. While the tv shows have good and bad episodes, all of the Star Trek movies I've seen were excellent. Wrath of Khan? Definitely one of the best sci-fi movies I've seen, ever.

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For me it's "I, Mudd".

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For me it's "I, Mudd".

I saw that one on the SciFi Channel the day after Thanksgiving. It was hilarious!

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

That episode was not very logical. I mean those guys could beat the Flagship of the Federation and still they are just a minor race.

Sure it does. Just because you have the firepower to blow up a planet doesn't mean you HAVE to use it.

I'd also suggest that a culture whose language was based primarily in literary references might be more interested in how the story continues instead of how it ends.

"Darmok and Jilad" is definitely on of my favorites from TNG, although I'd never be able to commit to a top three list or anything. It reminds me of both the one with the archive-probe-whatever that reformats Enterprise to keep working out a religious sun-moon thing and the one where a different memorial-probe-whatever makes Picard live most of an entire life as part of a long-dead culture. IIRC, he replicates the flute he learned to play in that and it appears in later episodes.

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he replicates the flute he learned to play in that and it appears in later episodes.

Actually he doesn't replicate it. That is the actual flute used by the person who's life he "lives" through. It was included as payload in the probe as a gift.

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My all time favorite is "Night Terrors" from TNG. The way they built up the suspense was awesome. It took me an hour for my heart rate to return to normal at the end.

I also liked "Yesterday's Enterprise" a lot.

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TheRealWarpstorm

Join Date 03/2003

+13

The City on the Edge of Forever.

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TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever" (Edith Keeler must die!")--Harlan Ellison
TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise"
DS9: "Way of the Warrior"
Voyager: Nada. Didn't like Voyager at all. Except the game Elite Force. That was ok.
Enterprise: "Mirror, Darkly"

It seems the best episodes either have to do with time travel or alternative universes. Perhaps the paradoxes involved are a type of drama unique to the science fiction genre.

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I'm a fan, but don't really know the episode names. A couple of episodes that stick out though was DS9 where the Klingons thought the Cardassians were infiltrated by the founders and attacked the station and remember the Voyager one "The Year Of Hell" being quite good right up until the ending that kind of bit.

Enterprise is probably the only series that I haven't seen them all, will have to catch up on dvd one day.

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Cyong_

Join Date 03/2004

+1

Well, I am going to be the one who stands up, and says it.

I liked Star Trek: Voyager.

Honestly, they had just been continuing on with the being in hailing range of a ship less than a day away if you got into serious trouble. Deep Space Nine was a vast improvement because instead of making lives better or worse, and then living the next episode. It was really more of a (forgive the terminology) don't shit where you sleep concept. Not everyone was happy with the choices, and it was always intended for the greater good, but at the end of the day the decisions they made for others affected them as well. Voyager was about true explorers. Knowing nothing about what is ahead. Even in TOS they had charts of where they could get dilithium or deuterium. Not in voyager. They had to scavenge, and conserve because they never knew what would happen next.

Favorite characters from both series: The Doctors. The EMH had this wide range of ways to grow from the basic doctor minus the bedside manner he was designed to be, and he explored them. Bashir had to constantly "dumb himself down" to be able to interact with normal people, and not be considered a freak.

So a favorite episode of each will be hard for me, but I will chose meaningful ones.

Voyager: Season 7, Episode 5 Critical Care
DS9: Season 6, Episode 19 In the Pale Moonlight

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I liked Star Trek: Voyager.

How can you not like a show with characters like Seven-of-Nine? The holographic doctor was also a hoot!

Seriously, the show was able to break free of many of the convensions forced on the other series because they were away from Federation space and no longer constricted by Starfleet regulations. Freedom to include all kinds of character flaws (which makes them interesting). Since the crew couldn't just be replaced with a more "fit" crew member they are forced to deal with each other in interesing ways. Plus the show was going somewhere, had a purpose -- to get home.

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