Created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek: The Original Series premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966, and aired three seasons consisting of 79 episodes, lots of them classics of sci-fi leisure.
“You know. 1966? 79 episodes, about 30 good ones,” stated Futurama’s Philip J. Fry to Leonard Nimoy, who’s alive in that universe as a head in a jar.
Of course, that’s Fry’s opinion. I’d recommend watching all of them, however that’s not the project. So, learn on for an inventory of the 15 greatest Star Trek: The Original Series episodes ranked.
15. “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” (season 1, episode 19)
In this episode, an encounter with a black gap sends the Enterprise to Twentieth-century Earth, the place it’s seen by an Air Force pilot, whose son has an necessary function to play sooner or later. Written by longtime Trek scribe D.C. Fontana, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” is notable for being the primary episode written solely by a lady. Although she had beforehand written the teleplay for “Charlie X,” Roddenberry acquired the writing credit score.
14. “Plato’s Stepchildren” (season 3, episode 10)
After Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) saves a tyrannical king’s life, he makes use of torture to forestall him from returning to the Enterprise. From a feminist point-of-view, “Plato’s Stepchildren” isn’t the perfect Trek episode ever made resulting from this. Still, I’ve included it on this listing because it was a culturally important episode as the primary interracial kiss between Black and White actors on scripted American tv.
13. “Catspaw” (season 2, episode 7)
“Trick or treat, Captain?” Yup, “Catspaw” is Trek‘s only Halloween episode. When the Enterprise discovers alien beings disguised as humanoids on Pyris VII, the aliens erect a haunted house—complete with a dungeon, eerie fog, witches, and black cat—to prevent Jim Kirk (William Shatner) from discovering their true plan: conquering the galaxy. Maybe you’ve heard this is likely one of the collection’ worst episodes, however I feel it’s spooktastic enjoyable, written by Psycho novelist Robert Bloch.
12. “Operation — Annihilate!” (season 1, episode 29)
In “Operation — Annihilate!,” behavior-altering parasites trigger mass hysteria, destroying the civilizations of a number of planets. When the Enterprise arrives on the Federation colony the place Sam Kirk (Shatner) lives, it’s too late: Sam has already been pancaked. To kill the parasites with out harming the hosts, McCoy devises a light-weight therapy that he checks on Spock (Nimoy), inflicting the Vulcan to go blind briefly. But, Vulcans are like cats and have inside eyelids, stopping Spock from going fully blind.
11. “The Cage” (first pilot)
In Trek‘s rejected pilot, “The Cage,” Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) and the Enterprise investigate an 18-year-old shipwreck and encounter a race of telepathic aliens, the Talosians, who want a human specimen for their menagerie. Although it included Spock and some core Trek themes, it also differed tremendously from what viewers saw in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
When CBS All Access ordered Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in May 2020, producer Henry Alonso Myers called it the longest pilot to series pick up in TV history in Paramount+’s YouTube video “Bringing A Series to Life.”
10. “The Naked Time” (season 1, episode 4)
In this Hugo Award-nominated episode, whereas investigating the Psi 2000 analysis group’s deaths, the Enterprise crew turns into contaminated with a virus that provokes irrational and emotional conduct. Spock cries, Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett-Roddenberry) admits her love for Spock, and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) threatens the bridge together with his fencing foil, solely to be foiled by a Vulcan nerve pinch (the primary time one was seen onscreen).
In an interview, Takei instructed CJAD host Peter Anthony Holder that “without question,” his favourite episode was “Naked Time.”
9. “I, Mudd” (season 2, episode 8)
“I, Mudd” is the Enterprise’s second encounter with Harcourt Fenton Mudd (Roger C. Carmel). In the episode, Norman (Richard Tatro), an android, masquerades as a crewmember, steals the ship and takes it to an unmapped planet, the place the touchdown occasion finds King Mudd the First, proudly displaying the gorgeous feminine androids created for human amusement. However, all isn’t what it appears; that twist makes this episode nice.
8. “The City on the Edge of Forever” (season 1, episode 28)
Widely thought of probably the greatest TOS episodes, “The City on the Edge of Forever” was penned by Harlan Ellison (though it went by way of a number of rewrites, a lot to his distaste). In the episode, a mentally compromised McCoy steps by way of a time portal into Depression-era NYC, altering historical past. Kirk and Spock then journey by way of the portal, hoping to forestall McCoy from altering the timeline. While ready for him, Kirk meets a social employee, Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), and falls in love, solely to be taught that her life is the one McCoy saved to change the timeline. Kirk should resolve between the woman and the timeline.
7. “The Devil in the Dark” (season 1, episode 25)
While investigating the deaths of Janus VI miners, the Enterprise discovers a brand new species, the Horta, and Spock thoughts melds with a nonhumanoid alien for the primary time, studying the alien had been keen to share the planet till oblivious people destroyed her eggs. With Spock as a mediator, the miners and the Horta can now talk successfully and negotiate a treaty. The monster has modified within the miners’ eyes to a cute little satan, making the episode an important lesson within the risks of stereotyping.
6. “Balance of Terror” (season 1, episode 14)
“Balance of Terror” is the primary time Starfleet sees the Romulans and learns they give the impression of being precisely just like the Vulcans. When the Enterprise is alerted {that a} Romulan bird-of-prey has destroyed a Federation outpost guarding the Neutral Zone, Starfleet orders Kirk to destroy the ship. Meanwhile, the Romulan commander (Mark Lenard) is ordered by his individuals to do the identical. Regularly topping best-of lists as a commentary on warfare and the prejudices it creates, the episode is notable for what the Romulan commander tells Kirk: “You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.”
5. “Space Seed” (season 1, episode 22)
“Space Seed” is the primary look of a longtime Kirk foe: Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalbán), a genetically engineered strongman and chief in Earth’s Eugenics War. The magnetism of Montalbán (to not point out his thick, thick chest) is well worth the worth of admission alone. The episode can also be an important story for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and several other Star Trek: Enterprise episodes.
4. “Arena” (season 1, episode 18)
“Arena” options some of the memorable TOS sequences, the place Kirk fights a inexperienced lizard-like creature with glowing purple eyes, carrying a gold, flower tunic. Although it’s a battle to the dying, ultimately, Kirk chooses mercy for his opponent over touchdown a killing blow—one of many enduring themes of Trek. Oscar-winner Wah Chang constructed the well-known neoprene-latex lizard swimsuit, now owned by Ben Stiller.
3. “Amok Time” (season 2, episode 1)
In “Amok Time,” Spock reveals that to cope with highly effective sexual urges—with out emotion, after all—Vulcans are ritually wedded in childhood. Still, this sublimation isn’t sufficient to cease pon farr each seven years when Vulcan males should mate or die. Upon studying this, Kirk rushes Spock to Vulcan, the place Spock learns that his fianceé T’Pring (Arlene Martel) desires to marry another person.
An iconic episode, it was the primary to make use of the Vulcan salute, introduce the idea of pon farr, and have Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig). Lastly, shout out to the late composer Gerald Fried: the music is as iconic because the episode itself, particularly the music for the Vulcan kal-if-fee ritual.
2. “The Savage Curtain” (season 3, episode 22)
“The Savage Curtain” opens with the Enterprise operating scans on a wierd planet, when Abraham Lincoln (Lee Bergere) seems on the viewscreen and comes aboard the ship. As the captain admires Lincoln, of whom he says, “I think of all our heroes on Earth, he is the most loved today,” the US president is racist to Uhura. What makes this episode fascinating is that whereas it appears to discredit the parable of the American Civil War with Lincoln’s racism, it additionally perpetuates the parable of American nationalism by classifying him as “good.”
1. “Journey to Babel” (season 2, episode 10)
Written by the late, nice Fontana, “Journey to Babel” could also be considered one of her most iconic episodes. In it, the Enterprise is transporting a broadly divergent group of ambassadors to the Babel Conference, together with Spock’s dad and mom, Sarek (Lenard) and Amanda (Jane Wyatt), relationships that have been explored in-depth in Star Trek: Discovery. When the Tellarite Ambassador reveals up murdered, Sarek turns into the middle of the episode, showcasing how skillfully Fontana can navigate drama.
Also notable, the episode introduces Andorians and Tellarites.
(featured picture; CBS)
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