Best hi-concept science fiction ideas in Star Trek?

Regardless of how the stories were executed, which Star Trek stories did you find to be the most high concept and intriguing.

The ones that stand out for me are...

TNG Schisms- Might have been a better episode but I loved the concept and it was still a really good episode
VOY Before and After -Time travel done really well, this episode is a real favorite of mine

There are loads more but I'm more interested in hearing other people's suggestions.

 

One of my favorite episodes that first delved deeply into previously unexplored nuances of time travel is Yesterday's Enterprise. Upon my first viewing, I was left a little confused - I suppose because the story didn't hold my hand to explain why Prime Picard and crew had no knowledge of Altered Picard and crew - and vice versa. Even though I was a little puzzled, it instantly became a favorite episode of mine.

Subsequent viewings permitted me to fully understand what was going on. Maybe the fact that I was 16 at the time of the first viewing precluded my full understanding. I do maintain that teenagers are, by and large, are a fairly stupid segment of human population. But, I digress...

Thoughts on this episode?

 

One of my favorites is Voyager's season 4 "Scientific Method". I thought that episode ROCKED as far as Sci-fi goes. In it there are aliens that cannot be seen by Voyager's crew that are performing scientific experiments on them. The sight of Janeway with aliens sticking needles in her head!!! OMG! It was deeply disturbing and a great sci-fi show for me.

 

That would be my pick as well. Just superlative SF, from any angle.

 

TNG did hi-concept the best out of all series, imo:

Cause and Effect
The Nth Degree
The Inner Light
Timescape
Parallels

 

All tops in any SF discussion. TNG did it so well, TOS dabbled while catering to the action crowd(of which I am one).

 

TNG "Second Chances" - poses some fascinating questions about personal identity

TNG "Parallels" - I find the concept of parallel universes very interesting.

The Prophets when first introduced on DS9 in "Emissary" - the concept of beings who exist in non-linear time is really fascinating, and the idea that they could be treated as gods and - justifiably -as prophets, is a very interesting way to explain religion in SF terms, while not treating it as a joke. Even if DS9 ended up screwing up whole religion arc in season 7.

 

And let's not forget "All Good Things..."

 

DS9's torture-O'Brien episodes, Whispers and Visionary.

 

You've all forgotten that timeless classic; Threshold. Warp 10, evolution happening in a single individual, lizard babies... it had it all.

 

DS9's Distant Voices, and Voyager's Deadlock, were both good episodes that stood out for me as high concept episodes, but TNG does do the best high concept, with the aforementioned Cause and Effect, Timescape, and Parallels.

 

Most of my favourites have already been answered, I also like the idea of "Dead Stop" (Enterprise) where a mechanical station gains a kind of sentience; "Darmok" from TNG, with a species who communicate entirely through metaphor; "The Changeling" from TOS.

 

My personal favorite was The Inner Light. Both the concept and the performance were excellent.

 

I know I'm going to get run up a flagpole for this, but there's something to be said for the entire Nomad/V'ger angle. All in all its an entire sub-genre of science fiction: a cosmic "return to sender" from an alien world.

 

Darmok was intriguing, except for Troy's retarded exposition on alien races being "lucky to understand each other at all". Especially the example of the cup of water example. If I had been Picard I would have countered that example by pulling out several different cups of different types with differing amounts of water at different temperatures/colors/etc and pointed to each one saying "water" each time. It was just such a flawed bit of logic on the writers part.

 

VOY seems to have done a number of "high concept SF" episodes.
Blink Of An Eye is one of my favourites, they find a planet that exists in a different time frame so that whilst a few days pass on Voyager, hundreds of years pass on the planet.

 

I haven't seen anyone mention TNG's The Measure of a Man yet.

 

Oh of course, awesome episode.

 

Didn't VOY use that concept in two different stories. I forget the other title. It had Lori Singer.

 

Sometimes they use the same concepts from different angles like the head, tail and body of a fish. I agree that Voyager had alot of great concepts. I like stories that make you think and leave a greater unsolved mystery at the end than at the beginning. Star trek should endeaver to be more complex. You'ld be surprised what your average fourteen year old can comprehend. I like the crazy metaphysical shit. Whereas Ron Moore favored the more linear approach.