The very best episodes

[Lucky]

I agree with most of the ones listed here. Just chiming in to say that "Dagger of the Mind," which hasn't been mentioned yet, should be watched as well.

[BillJ]

Lucky wrote:

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I agree with most of the ones listed here. Just chiming in to say that "Dagger of the Mind," which hasn't been mentioned yet, should be watched as well.

Knew I was missing one. Good catch!

[ImCaptKirk]

I like the Enemy Within.

[Keith1701]

The Doomsday Machine
The City of Edge of Forever
Where No Man's Has Gone Before
A Piece of the Action
The Naked Time

[Knight Templar]

I've never been big on "Star Trek for laughs" either. So I tend not to enjoy the light hearted episodes.

[Gojira]

I always liked time travel episodes so the first season episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" is a favorite of mine.

[Tina Lawton]

JustKate wrote:

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I am also extremely fond of "I, Mudd," but I am well aware that this choice isn't as popular with everybody. But I think it's probably my second favorite funny TOS episode, right after "Tribbles."

"I Mudd" blows.

[Warped9]

The best.

“Where No Man Has Gone Before"
“The Corbomite Maneuver”
“The Enemy Within”
“The Naked Time”
“Balance Of Terror”
“What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
“Dagger Of The Mind”
“The Galileo Seven”
“Court Martial”
“Shore Leave"
“Arena”
“Tomorrow Is Yesterday”
“A Taste Of Armageddon”
“Space Seed”
“Errand Of Mercy”
“The City On The Edge Of Forever”

“Amok Time”
“The Doomsday Machine”
“Mirror, Mirror”
“Journey To Babel”
“Return To Tomorrow”
“The Ultimate Computer”

“Elaan Of Troyius”
“The Enterprise Incident”
“Is There In Truth No Beauty?”
“The Tholian Web”

Of course there are also quite a few Good episodes, but I think these are the creme.

[Ian Keldon]

My list:

Season 1
The Cage
Where No Man...
Balance of Terror
The Galileo Seven
Arena
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Space Seed
A Taste of Armageddon
The Devil in the Dark
Errand of Mercy
City on the Edge of Forever

Season 2
Amok Time
Mirror Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
Journey to Babel
Trouble with Tribbles
A Piece of the Action
A Private Little War
The Ultimate Computer
Bread and Circuses

Season 3
The Enterprise Incident
For the World is Hollow...
Elaan of Troyius
The Way to Eden

Season 4 (TAS)
Yesteryear
The Survivor
The Slaver Weapon

I know I'm going to take flak for "The Way to Eden", but I don't care. For all it's seemingly simple "space hippy" plotline, I like that it shows that there's room in the Federation for people who don't want to be part of the "modern day rat race" as it were.

It was a nice balance to too many episodes where "good" = "becoming like the Federation" (that is embracing technocratic progress) and people were not allowed to simply be content with their current situation.

Don't get me wrong, for every situation where change was arguably needed ("A Taste of Armageddon", for example), there is a "This Side of Paradise", where happy, healthy people who had established an arguably good life for themselves were forced out of it because Kirk decided it "wasn't good for them".

[gottacook]

Tina Lawton wrote:

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"I Mudd" blows.

Wha'? I love it, not totally unreservedly but enough to place it among my most memorable. When the whole script leads up to Norman asking for help out of the final impossible logical puzzle they've presented to him ("I am lying") and Kirk's mocking reply, "I am not programmed to respond in that area" - that's golden. As is the coda with the Stellae.

[Ian Keldon]

^It's amusing enough, but Mudd just irritates the crap out of me. He's pretty much a slimeball with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, unlike Cyrano Jones who has at least some charm to him.

[JimZipCode]

Warped9 wrote:

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The best:
...
“The Tholian Web”

What does anyone see in Tholian Web?

I mean, seriously. The episode sucked. It was static, and with Kirk mostly absent it driven mostly by the character interaction between Spock & McCoy, and their interaction is TERRIBLE. Poorly written, not well thought out, over acted.

If you want to see Spock & McCoy deal with issues of command, re-watch Obsession to catch the key conversation in Kirk's quarters. Don't bother with Tholian Web.

[JimZipCode]

Ian Keldon wrote:

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I know I'm going to take flak for "The Way to Eden", but I don't care. For all it's seemingly simple "space hippy" plotline, I like that it shows that there's room in the Federation for people who don't want to be part of the "modern day rat race" as it were.

It was a nice balance to too many episodes where "good" = "becoming like the Federation" (that is embracing technocratic progress) and people were not allowed to simply be content with their current situation.

Hear, hear. As I've said elsewhere, Way To Eden is much better than its rep among Star Trek fans.

The space hippie costumes and speech and mannerisms and songs are all annoying. But the story is actually pretty solid.

[Mr_Homn]

JimZipCode wrote:

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What does anyone see in Tholian Web?

I mean, seriously. The episode sucked. It was static, and with Kirk mostly absent it driven mostly by the character interaction between Spock & McCoy, and their interaction is TERRIBLE. Poorly written, not well thought out, over acted.

If you want to see Spock & McCoy deal with issues of command, re-watch Obsession to catch the key conversation in Kirk's quarters. Don't bother with Tholian Web.

I think the real reasons most people like Tholian Web (I count myself among them) are the following :

1. It introduces one of the most exotically alien ever seen in star trek, even to this day. Insectoid races seem very rare in star trek, and it's really cool that they are in TOS.

2. The tholian strategy (while a little silly) of making a web is a very unique idea and seems cool for what seem like "space spiders"

3. I REALLY like the viewscreen conversation scene between Loskene and the enterprise crew. The voice of loskene and the special effects are incredibly well executed IMO

4. Less shatner. don't get me wrong, I love shatner and I love kirk, but it's refreshing to have an episode centered more on spock and mccoy.

5. the idea of kirk phasing in and out of space seems ahead of it's time. It also resulted in the really cool and kinda spooky scene of Uhura seeing kirk in her mirror. I think that's one of the best Uhura scenes of all time. This idea was revisited in lonely among us, when Picard finds himself in a similar situation

these are the reasons that come to mind first, but there are more i'm sure

[JimZipCode]

lisa wrote:

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I have never watched more than the first episode of TOS.
I am ready to mend my ways, so I've come to the experts.
So tell me, which episodes are the very best?

I suppose if I am going to slag off on other people's lists, I should step forward with a list of my own.

Lisa, a lot depends on how big you want your list to be. If you pinned me down and asked me for the VERY BEST episodes, my list would only be 3:

Doomsday Machine
Amok Time
City on the Edge of Forever

That's probably in ascending order of quality, and coincidentally in inverse chrono order, but I'd suggest watching them in that order.

If you want to take a leisurely tour thru the better stuff in season one, in order; then I would give you this list of 12:

Charlie X
Enemy Within *
Mudd's Women
Dagger of the Mind
Corbomite Maneuver *
Balance of Terror *
Shore Leave
Space Seed
Taste of Armageddon *
This Side of Paradise
Devil in the Dark *
City on the Edge of Forever ***

The ones marked with a star are my top 5 of season one (plus City of course).

I could also give a season 2 list, but one season would certainly get you started.

One thing I especially like about Charlie X, Mudd's Women, Dagger, Devil, and I'll throw in Court Martial & Conscience of the King too: they are the episodes that give you the best sense of what the galaxy of the Federation is like. A lot of Trek has the crew out in unknown space, interacting with aliens and hostile environments; those episodes have the crew interacting with other earth ships or settlements or starbases. It's interesting seeing them among their peers.

(Taste of Armageddon has really grown on me in the past few years. I used to dismiss it as kind of an unremarkable episode. Nowadays I tend to think it's almost THE perfect example of a basic "good" Trek episode. Not an awesome episode, nowhere near among the best ever: but a perfect example of what a "good" Trek episode is like. It does a lot of things well. Plus it has Barbara Babcock, and the "I will not kill – today" speech.)