What do you think is the weirdest/most original episode in all of Trek?

I'm not 100% sure of that. With different racial casting, it would still show a tribal society that even with advanced technology thinks kidnapping is a valid form of courtship.

And even if you give the racial discomfort of the episode a pass, it's still a bad script. It's not believable that even for a vaccine, they would allow a kidnapped member of their crew to stay in danger of being raped when they could just transport her aboard.

 

Wolf in the Fold:
Jack the Ripper is a space entity that feeds on fear, frames Scotty for murder on a peaceful planet, has Piglets voice and the episode ends with the whole crew high.

 

I don't know if it's the weirdest, but there weren't many episodes like TNG's "The Royale."

 

"BLINK OF AN EYE", STAR TREK: VOYAGER.

Having the hero ship actually be a huge part of the mythology of a species, as we watch it's civilization grow from beginning to current era? LOVED this episode, and it is a nice nod to STAR TREK and genre itself with how it has become such a huge part of our own mythos and how it has inspired so many people to be scientists, doctors, astronauts... helping to build the future of humanity.

 

I just thought of a game! Take any episode of the franchise whatsoever and prove by describing it that it's the weirdest of them all. I just did it for 5 episodes taken completely at random.


It's an interesting exercise. Try it.

 

TOS: The Immunity Syndrome.
Spock having strong emotions. The Enterprise needing to penetrate a giant trippy space amoeba something something something, forward and reverse thrust and the crew getting tired.

 

I am always wary of anyone with a piglet voice...

 

Star Trek already established a technologically advanced, and supremely intelligent, race that thinks battle between males where the female become the property of the victor is a valid form of courtship. Amok Time.

For weird, i.e. original Trek, it has to go to Far Beyond the Stars. It's one of the few that had reality/ time-bending and didn't try to explain it in some neatly wrapped up way at the end. The novelization of that episode was truly tremendous.

 

90% chance he has a meat cleaver behind his back.


P.S. For more Redjac goodness, check out the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Incident in a Small Jail."

 

I love that series! I haven't seen it for decades though.

 

By Steven Barnes, I believe.

 

Yep. He has an essay in the book about being a black sci fi fan and how difficult it was growing up, but then came DS9...