The Most Generic STAR TREK Episode...

[Farscape One]

This was inspired by the VOYAGER thread.

With the TNG list on its final poll, and ENTERPRISE now at the halfway point, I felt it was time to go back to the beginning.

So here is the list, in production order...

THE CAGE
WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE
THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER
MUDD'S WOMEN
THE ENEMY WITHIN
THE MAN TRAP
THE NAKED TIME
CHARLIE X
BALANCE OF TERROR
WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?
DAGGER OF THE MIND
MIRI
THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING
THE GALILEO SEVEN
COURT MARTIAL
THE MENAGERIE PART I
THE MENAGERIE PART II
SHORE LEAVE
THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS
ARENA
THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR
TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY
THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS
SPACE SEED
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
THE DEVIL IN THE DARK
ERRAND OF MERCY
THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER
OPERATION -- ANNIHILATE!

CATSPAW
METAMORPHOSIS
FRIDAY'S CHILD
WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
AMOK TIME
THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE
WOLF IN THE FOLD
THE CHANGELING
THE APPLE
MIRROR, MIRROR
THE DEADLY YEARS
I, MUDD
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES
BREAD AND CIRCUSES
JOURNEY TO BABEL
A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR
THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION
OBSESSION
THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME
A PIECE OF THE ACTION
BY ANY OTHER NAME
RETURN TO TOMORROW
PATTERNS OF FORCE
THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER
THE OMEGA GLORY
ASSIGNMENT: EARTH

SPECTRE OF THE GUN
ELAAN OF TROYIUS
THE PARADISE SYNDROME
THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT
AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
SPOCK'S BRAIN
IS THERE IN TRUTH NO BEAUTY?
THE EMPATH
THE THOLIAN WEB
FOR THE WORLD IS HOLLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY
DAY OF THE DOVE
PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN
WINK OF AN EYE
THAT WHICH SURVIVES
LET THAT BE YOUR LAST BATTLEFIELD
WHOM GODS DESTROY
THE MARK OF GIDEON
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR
THE CLOUD MINDERS
THE WAY TO EDEN
REQUIEM FOR METHUSELAH
THE SAVAGE CURTAIN
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
TURNABOUT INTRUDER


I will begin by giving you "A TASTE OF ARMAGEDDON". The idea of two civilizations at war for 500 years and the people just killing themselves because a computer told them they were a casualty in that war is very unique. I loved Kirk's solution.

 

[Kor]

I'll go with ERRAND OF MERCY. The Klingons were a new and interesting adversary, a force to be reckoned with. It was also rather humbling for Kirk to be made to realize how eager he was to go to war.

Kor

 

[Marsden]

By generic you mean most typical or even plain? Nothing to see here, as it were. Meh.
So I should pick one that isn't meh, thereby whittling it down to the most meh episode remaining.

I pick Balance of Terror.

Introduction of the Romulans and a great running battle between to crafty captains, something sorely lacking in most star wars where they drive right up to each other and shoot until somebody blows up.

 

[Neopeius]

Given that Balance of Terror is a direct lift of The Enemy Below, I think it scores high in the generic.

I have a unique vantage, living as I do in the era just before Star Trek. So I'm going to pick an episode that is different from everything I'd seen before: Movies, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Dahl's and Karloff's shows (can't remember their names now).

I also kind of feel this should be done by season -- because the later seasons have to be unique not only from what came before but from prior Treks. Unless, of course, I'm missing the whole point of this exercise.

Anyway, as the most unique of the 1st Season, I'm going to go with Space Seed. All the other eps before it, while many are excellent (and some better than Space Seed), they are reminiscent of something I'd seen prior. Space Seed is a wholly space-borne episode, at a time when spaceship shows were rare; it involved the Enterprise meeting another spaceship, from our future (so two futures intersecting). It wasn't horror or a monster show or a military/courtroom drama dressed up. It wasn't a twist-ending. Just pure space-based SF.

God, I can't wait to get to September '66!!!

 

[ZapBrannigan]

You guys are naming iconic episodes, not generic ones.

"The Apple" is the most generic episode, in the sense of having rolled off the assembly line with no higher purpose or meaning than to fill a week in the broadcast schedule. It's not extremely bad, and it's not very good.

 

[Poltargyst]

Farscape One's op seems to expect that I would know the point of the exercise. But I don't read the other Star Trek boards, I haven't seen this exercise before. Perhaps Farscape could explain the exercise?

 

[Phaser Two]

Farscape One's op seems to expect that I would know the point of the exercise. But I don't read the other Star Trek boards, I haven't seen this exercise before. Perhaps Farscape could explain the exercise?

I'm with you. I want to participate but I don't know the framework.

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

You guys are naming iconic episodes, not generic ones.

"The Apple" is the most generic episode, in the sense of having rolled off the assembly line with no higher purpose or meaning than to fill a week in the broadcast schedule. It's not extremely bad, and it's not very good.

I am confused and I agree with Zap. Although I like people's posts nobody but Zap seems to be making a generic case.

I vote for Obsession. It's Season Two coming in the middle at the end of the great Gene Coon era. Bob Justman said the show had to be entertaining with likable characters to stand a chance of staying on the air. I would say this is generic TOS--fast paced, entertaining, making good use of the likable main characters, one guest star, The Enterprise, one alien planet set doubling for two planets and a monster of the week.

I actually love the episode but because it is a bit generic I could show it to a TOS virgin.

Zap I really like the Apple. Love the Prime Directive debate and Kirk embarrassing Spock, McCoy and Martha Landon by pushing along Landon's "how is it done" queery. I like Checkov having a love life with Landon. Killing all four red shirted security guards was too much and the desperately needed Motion Picture body armour might have saved Hendorff and Marple. Overall I like it but you make the right case if we understand this game correctly.

I have a unique vantage, living as I do in the era just before Star Trek.

God, I can't wait to get to September '66!!!

If you are capable of time travel can I go back with you? Can we go to London? I want to see the Who when they were still playing in small clubs and music halls and mini skirts when they were just coming into fashion.

Do you have a color TV set to watch trek when it first comes over the airwaves?

 

[Phaser Two]

Yeah. Is generic bad or good?

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

Yeah. Is generic bad or good?

I take it as not bad but not exceptional--representative of the show's strengths and conforming to the basic premise.

There was a thread like this in the General Trek forum and where it came to TOS the de facto leader of this BBS--none other than Lord Garth chose For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky. That's as a good choice for this exercise as any.

 

[Myko]

The premise of the Voyager version was to find the most generic episode by eleminating every non-generic episode, so that whichever episode remained had to be the most generic. We're supposed to list the iconic episodes.

City on the Edge of Forever is obviously not generic, so that's what I cross off the list.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Oh, we're supposed to pick off what's not generic and get down to what is by elimination. I didn't get the game. I'd say "Mirror Mirror" is the least generic episode.

 

[Farscape One]

The lack of explanation is my fault. My apologies.

The first thing to do is copy the episode list, then delete what you consider to NOT be generic or done before in the franchise. Given this is the first series, that can prove a bit challenging.

Each person after someone posts also copies the previous list, until it gets whittled down to the final two episodes that have not been voted off. Then, I will post a poll on those final two to see what is considered the most generic episode.

Another criteria some have used... an episode that is so bad that the level of its badness is not matched, or at least very rare.

 

[Phaser Two]

Okay . . . my question remains. Is generic bad or good?

 

[Farscape One]

Given the two finalists for both TNG and VOYAGER, it leans more toward the bad side.

 

[Sakonna]

I wonder if the negative connotation of "generic" misleads people a little. Maybe these are better called... the most typical episode? The most conventional episode?

 

[Farscape One]

Interesting thought. I hadn't considered that, I just went with 'Generic' because that was what the VOYAGER one was called.

Maybe keeping that line of thinking in this thread will help.

 

[Sakonna]

OK, I think I've reconciled this list to remove all the "most distinct" episodes people named, but not the "most generic/typical/conventional" episodes. @Farscape One you probably want to check my work... (and maybe edit the first post on the thread to add the parameters, so it's easy for any newcomers?)

THE CAGE
WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BEFORE
THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER
MUDD'S WOMEN
THE ENEMY WITHIN
THE MAN TRAP
THE NAKED TIME
CHARLIE X
WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?
DAGGER OF THE MIND
MIRI
THE CONSCIENCE OF THE KING
THE GALILEO SEVEN
COURT MARTIAL
THE MENAGERIE PART I
THE MENAGERIE PART II
SHORE LEAVE
THE SQUIRE OF GOTHOS
ARENA
THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR
TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY
THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
THE DEVIL IN THE DARK
OPERATION -- ANNIHILATE!

METAMORPHOSIS
FRIDAY'S CHILD
WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?
AMOK TIME
THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE
WOLF IN THE FOLD
THE CHANGELING
THE APPLE
THE DEADLY YEARS
I, MUDD
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES
BREAD AND CIRCUSES
JOURNEY TO BABEL
A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR
THE GAMESTERS OF TRISKELION
OBSESSION
THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME
A PIECE OF THE ACTION
BY ANY OTHER NAME
RETURN TO TOMORROW
PATTERNS OF FORCE
THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER
THE OMEGA GLORY
ASSIGNMENT: EARTH

SPECTRE OF THE GUN
ELAAN OF TROYIUS
THE PARADISE SYNDROME
THE ENTERPRISE INCIDENT
AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
SPOCK'S BRAIN
IS THERE IN TRUTH NO BEAUTY?
THE EMPATH
THE THOLIAN WEB
FOR THE WORLD IS HOLLOW AND I HAVE TOUCHED THE SKY
DAY OF THE DOVE
PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN
WINK OF AN EYE
THAT WHICH SURVIVES
LET THAT BE YOUR LAST BATTLEFIELD
WHOM GODS DESTROY
THE MARK OF GIDEON
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR
THE CLOUD MINDERS
THE WAY TO EDEN
REQUIEM FOR METHUSELAH
THE SAVAGE CURTAIN
ALL OUR YESTERDAYS
TURNABOUT INTRUDER

And I have removed "Catspaw," the only Halloween episode! (Or holiday themed episode of any type, really)

 

[Phaser Two]

I wonder if the negative connotation of "generic" misleads people a little. Maybe these are better called... the most typical episode? The most conventional episode?

Thanks. I'm not trying to be difficult, but if it's a positive concept, then it's the most emblematic episode of TOS? The one that best exemplifies what the series is all about? Just looking for clarification. "Generic" to me definitely has a negative vibe.

 

[Sakonna]

Thanks. I'm not trying to be difficult, but if it's a positive concept, then it's the most emblematic episode of TOS? The one that best exemplifies what the series is all about? Just looking for clarification. "Generic" to me definitely has a negative vibe.

@Farscape One can correct me if I've interpreted this wrong, but I thought the intent was more neutral. In theory we end up with the most regular episode, the most standard episode -- so there's not really a value judgment of the final episode built into the game itself. Building towards the "most generic" also allows the actual eliminations to be more interesting -- better to have the eliminations be "this is why this episode stands out to me" rather than "this is why this episode is undistinguished."

And of course the game becomes what the players make of it. Sometimes people eliminate episodes for memorably bad qualities, other times for memorably good qualities, and sometimes just for something that's memorably different/strange/weird. Depending on how that unfolds, we may end up with good or bad episodes at the end, and I'm always intrigued to see which is the case, because the game isn't specifically steering it one way or another (though in both VOY and TNG the final episodes were weaker ones)

I admit to being baffled the first time I noticed this in the Voyager forum, my thought being "isn't the problem with Voyager that [almost] all of it is generic?"