Best and Worst Star Trek Episodes, Original Series

[Carolyn Hill]

I'm quite fond of "A Piece of the Action" and "Trouble with Tribbles". I also like "Conscience of the King", and I get a kick out of "Mirror, Mirror" (and evil Spock's beard!). Then there's "Doomsday Machine"--some fine acting in that one.

But, yeh, I guess I gotta go with "The City on the Edge of Forever" as being best, because it's the most literary.

My vote for worst is "Turnabout Intruder." The only thing hammier than Shatner playing Kirk is Shatner playing a woman pretending to be Kirk. Gack!

 

[Archimedes]

Best - Amock Time - I think I may have shed a tear when Spock say,s " I have killed my captain and my friend"

Worst - jeez.. was never crazy about that gunfight at the OK corral star trek, but there are a few laughs in it

 

[gigantes]

No bc it didn't bother me in Voyager during "Blood Fever" I think... I think it is just Spock he needs to be logical to be Spock

i think it's fairly well-explained by the rare rutting cycle which gripped him, which also ties in nicely with the historical roots of vulcan civilisation.

anyway, i don't have much of a 'best' or 'worst' episode because i was happy to watch the show regardless.

shatner and nimoy were always fascinating as the leads- the rest of the crew were fine but could have been played by many different people. yet take away nimoy's portrayal of spock (for example replacing him with the original spock-like character, barrett), and the show is far less interesting. take away shatner's kirk (for example replacing him with the more traditional but predictable portrayal of hunter) and the show is far less interesting.

also, most of the scene music was superb and the FX crew did great work with the budget they had available. it was funny reading about the thrift shops they'd have to scour every week to find the basis for that episode's props.

btw it was also fun reading about wil wheaton's traumatic first encounter with shatner he just blogged:
SuicideGirls > Boards > Current Events > NEWS: Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: WILLIAM ******* SHATNER, Part I
SuicideGirls > Boards > Current Events > NEWS: Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: WILLIAM ******* SHATNER, Part II

 

[Dave]

Best: the one where Kirk has to make a bamboo cannon to shoot diamonds at the Gorn. (That knowledge has served me many times over the years.)

You know, I never liked that episode (Arena) when I was a child. I think it was the polystyrene boulders that they threw, and the obvious man-in-a-suit Gorn, but I have to say that it has grown on me over the years. There is nothing wrong with the story, just the special effects, and after watching many BBC SFF shows I can cope with that more easily.

 

[doc123]

Balance of Terror-Best
Spock's Brain- Worst
The City on the Edge of Forever second place for best

 

[paranoid marvin]

Suprised no-one's mentioned Space Seed? The introduction to the only person to dominate with his screen presence more than Kirk , and a great story to boot. Worst episode? Well there's some corny bits in a few , but they all have someredeeming feature

Also really enjoyed
the Corbormite MAnuever. Ok , loses a little of its suspense second time around , but who could honestly say they expected an 'Oz' type scenario at the end?

 

[Dave]

Worst episode? Well there's some corny bits in a few , but they all have someredeeming feature

What? Even 'Spock's Brain'?

 

[paranoid marvin]

What? Even 'Spock's Brain'?

Ok , maybe I'll give you that one!

 

[ghostofcorwin]

"Spock..... help me...... Spock....."

Lincoln in a stove-pipe hat and Attila the Hun in fur and that goofy colonel. A funny, kitch episode....

THe worst?

"And you'll be dead, dead, dead!"

or The Empath... damn that was terrible...

I liked the Romulan episodes alot... especially the cloaking device episode. And the Tholian Web.... cool.

 

[dask]

I can watch just about any episode endlessly except the one with Vol.

 

[pon_farr]

The best episode is definitely Errand of Mercy. Great ending.

...I don't think there is a worst Star Trek episode. Anyway, Star Trek at its worst is still better than most other television shows.

 

[Ursa major]

I can't say I much liked The Omega Glory (the one with the Kangs and the Kohms** and the cringeworthy reading from the "ancient manuscript").








** - Imagines a world where no man has baldy gone before.

 

[Rodders]

I always thought that the Harry Mudd episodes were pretty weak to be honest.

 

[Nocturne]

Best? Charlie X, A Piece of the Action

worst? Arena

 

[J-WO]

Balance of Terror, easily my favorite. Why there weren't more episodes like this, I'll never know.

Think I've blocked out all the crap ones.

 

[BolianAdmiral]

IMO, the single worst episode of both TOS and probably all of Star Trek has got to be "The Galileo Seven". I cannot emphasize enough how much this episode appalls and angers me, on so many levels.

The episode was clearly written by someone who had absolutely NO grasp whatsoever of how a military or even quasi-military unit is supposed to function. The level of utter disrespect that Spock is bombarded with in the episode just infuriates me to no end.

The crew of the Galileo was in a crisis situation. Spock was the commanding officer charged with their safety. Yet at every turn, every single male junior officer blatantly defies Spock's authority, and even blows off what Spock tells them. And if this were not bad enough...

Doctor McCoy, who is a SENIOR officer, and obviously, ought know better, JOINS the younger men in taunting and defying Sock and his authority! I mean, c'mon... give me a freaking break! A SENIOR officer acting in that manner to his commanding officer?

The only two people who acted with any level of professionalism were Scotty and the female officer. Poor Scotty even defended Spock finally! I seriously hate... yes hate this episode. It was beyond poor writing, a poor depiction of a command unit, and a poor portrayal of what Gene Roddenberry wanted humans to be.

If I had written the episode, as soon as Spock was back on the Enterprise, the careers of every male junior officer left would have been OVER. Period... just like that, over, the moment they set foot in the shuttlebay. I would have had the security men take them into custody for insubordination and disobeying a superior officer. Also, I would have made a formal complaint to Captain Kirk about the conduct of Doctor McCoy, and demanded that an official reprimand appear in/on his Starfleet record, as a result of it. Seriously.

Man, this episode infuriates me... even posting about it now, I'm getting angry, lol. This was truly the worst of Trek, and IMO, a horrible attempt at writing.

 

[Metryq]

I'm glad to see several votes for "A Piece of the Action" as best. The episode uses humor to address a serious subject, and makes it probably the most quotable story in the series.

"I don't want to hear any more cracks about The Book!"

William Windom as Commodore Decker in "The Doomsday Machine" was the finest performance in any episode. In interview, Windom said that he gave about 20 minutes to the camera for that scene in the Auxiliary Control room, of which only a few seconds appear on screen.

Special mention for the dialog in "The Conscience of the King" between Kirk and Karidian in the actor's quarters. I loved the silhouette of Karidian behind the decorative screen as Lenore confronts the Captain.

"Spock's Brain" is unquestionably the worst episode, with "The Alternative Factor" a close second—Lost in Space physics coupled with the melodrama of Lazarus falling off a cliff every five minutes. "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was quite the stinker, too. When the scriptwriters ran out of preachy things to say, they filled at least half of the episode with that long-winded self-destruct arming procedure, and later Spock giving updates on the chase between Loki and Biel through the decks of the ship and down onto the planet.

Ometiklan wrote: Worst: And the Children Shall Lead.... that one hurts still today.

The K&S Women loved the scene in the elevator with Kirk clinging to Spock.

Steve12553 wrote: How many times did Kirk, Spock and McCoy escape during TOS by outwitting a computer and causing it to short circuit?

The ole talk it to death ploy. Let's see: Norman in "I, Mudd", Nomad in "The Changeling", Landru in "Return of the Archons", the M5 multi-tronic unit in "The Ultimate Computer", and Dr. Roger Korby in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" And it's not just machines, either. Kirk and co. razzle dazzle the Kelvins in "By Any Other Name" too.

BolianAdmiral wrote: The level of utter disrespect that Spock is bombarded with in the episode just infuriates me to no end.

Just setting the tone for the first season of The Next Degeneration. The entire crew gave the Captain more lip at every turn... As Captain Stone muttered to himself in Heinlein's The Rolling Stones, "It says right here in the book to give orders, not explanations, and never to let them be argued. So help me, I'm going to run a taut ship if I have to put my own mother in irons."

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I agree that Spock's Brain was really bad. But for me, it crossed over that fine line from Just Awful to So Awful it's Actually Kind of Funny during the brain surgery scene. McCoy's anxiety and agitation, combined with Spock's calm snark, was really funny to me.

 

[Holden von Vloppen]

The best IMO are City on the Edge of Forever, The Menagarie, Mirror Mirror, and the Doomsday Machine.

For me The Way to Eden is by far the worst, even worse than Spock's Brain. The whole space hippies thing was trite and dated to that period. Spock's Brain at least has some unintended humor kind of like Plan 9 from Outer Space.

I was surprised some people listed Mudd's Woman as a bad episode. I thought that one was hilarious. It was the best humor episode of the original series IMO.

 

[J-Sun]

I haven't seen many of these for years and years though one of my stations is currently airing the crappy redone versions so I get to refresh my memory. I don't remember all of them and don't seem to remember the third season much at all. So I definitely reserve the right to change my mind.

Everybody's already mentioned most of my favorites from season 1: "Arena" (Kirk vs. Gorn) got a mention, "The Devil in the Dark" (one that may be better in the thinking about than in the watching, but which is really great - not a bumpy forehead), and "This Side of Paradise" (drunk Spock playing in a tree) all got a mention. (I think that was a 'best' and not a 'worst' on "This Side".)

My very favorites are the consensus winner "The City on the Edge of Forever" (6 mentions), "Balance of Terror" (3), and "The Menagerie" (2). I love "The Menagerie", not so much for itself, but for what it shows about how Star Trek could have been - closer to the original vision of what could arguably have been an even better show. A female second officer in the same almost DS9-like uniform everybody else wore, for one example. There is something simultaneously more advanced and more classic about it. ST was a very 60s show. The ST that might have been had strong 50s aspects and strong "now" aspects. And it's hard to argue against "City" - but I really think I might give the edge to "Balance of Terror". As was mentioned about "Arena", it's lacking in some production values in some spots - a couple of things are pretty silly (the viewscreen works an awful lot like a camera and a director rather than... y'know, a viewscreen) but it's a fantastically tense, balanced, exciting, yet philosophical and well characterized episode.

The one particularly noteworthy s1 ep no one mentioned (unless I missed it) is "The Enemy Within", one of the many "split" episodes and probably the best. Kirk's animal and rational sides split. I really like that one, though it's not up to the very best.

I don't think there's anything in s2 to challenge s1 but I like "Amok Time" (Spock in heat - 2 mentions) and "Mirror, Mirror" (3 mentions). It's a peculiarity with the Star Treks that I love the three series but some of my favorite episodes are the "alternate worlds" eps - those that run contrary to the series. My favorite ST of any series, all-time, hands down, is "Yesterday's Enterprise" (TNG - a temporal rift causes the Enterprise C to not be destroyed saving Klingons, so the Federation and Klingons are at war) and I really enjoyed the Intendant-universe DS9s.

No one mentioned "Catspaw". Freaky Goth ST with a compelling performance by Antoinette Bower and a memorable ending. Or "Wolf in the Fold" which has Scotty, of all people, accused of murder and puts Earth history to interesting use. Or "By Any Other Name" which has the Andromeda folks try to take over our galaxy and puts Kirk's romancing of the alien to better than usual use. But these are only particularly memorable and not necessarily candidates for "the best".

And, as with many others, hands down, no contest - the worst is "Spock's Brain" although I agree with Daisy-Boo's take at the same time.