Gimmee Your Top Quartile, TOS Edition (20 episodes)

[Uhura's Song]

I have been doing rewatches of a lot of the Trek shows recently. Before Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and DISCO ended their runs, I did a re-watch. Also rewatched SNW before S3 started.

And I am late S2 on a TOS rewatch at the moment. But TOS was my first Trek, and I have seen them all before.

As I went through them, I did so with an eye to trying to pick my favorite episodes out. Some that I thought I would love did not resonate as much this last time through. And others I thought were poor were better than I expected. Anyway, for NuTrek, I have a decent idea in my head, of what my favorites were and were not. And I wanted to bring that to the earlier shows, though it is much harder to do with many more episodes.

Anyway, I came up with 25% arbitrarily. The top quartile of episodes. I wanted a number where the great/my favorite episodes could likely all fit, and the cut off was in the very good range with a lot of options. Anyway, 20 out of 80 (Cage included) is a nice, round number.

I must admit, my list is pretty generic. Not a lot of novel choices. Maybe as I rewatch the back end of S2 & S3, I will revisit.

And I thought it might increase my appreciation for other episodes if other folk shared their top 20s as well.

Anyway, here goes:

1. City on the Edge of Forever S1E28
2. The Doomsday Machine S2E6
3. The Menangerie S1E11-12
4. Mirror, Mirror S2E4
5. Amok Time S2E1
6. The Corbomite Manuever S1E10
7. Balance of Terror S1E14
8. This Side of Paradise S1E24
9. Where No Man Has Gone Before S1E3
10. The Trouble with Tribbles S2E15
11. The Enterprise Incident S3E2
12. Journey To Babel S2E10
13. A Taste of Armageddon S1E23
14. The Devil In The Dark S1E25
15. Space Seed S1E25
16. The Tholian Web S3E9
17. All Our Yesterdays S3E23
18. The Cage, aired 1988
19. Tomorrow Is Yesterday S1E19
20. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield S3E15

Pretty standard fare for a top 20, save maybe for Armageddon, The Cage, and Tomorrow Is Yesterday. And that is technically 21, as Menagerie is a double.

Not quite room for "Arena," "Shore Leave," "The Galileo Seven," "The Enemy Within," "The Naked Time," or "A Piece of the Action."

Or guilty pleasures like "Errand of Mercy," "Return of the Archons," "The Conscience of the King," "Court Martial," or "The Squire of Gothos."

If I had to go 33% (27 episodes), they would probably come from those 11 atm.

I can get to 35-40 TOS episodes I like a lot without breaking a sweat. I think fully half.

Anyway, have at me, as Sulu would say. Feel free to share your top 20 and maybe I will appreciate some others a bit more.

 

[drt]

Here are mine, in production order:

1. The Cage
2. The Corbomite Manuever
3. The Naked Time
4. Balance of Terror
5. Arena
6. Return of the Archons
7. A Taste of Armageddon
8. The Devil In The Dark
9. The City on the Edge of Forever
10. Friday's Child
11. Who Mourns for Adonais?
12. The Doomsday Machine
13. Amok Time
14. Mirror, Mirror
15. The Trouble with Tribbles
16. Journey To Babel
17. Obsession
18. The Ultimate Computer
19. The Tholian Web
20. That Which Survives


getting down to twenty was kind of hard, I think 25 would be my magic number, adding:

21. The Galileo Seven
22. The Apple
23. The Immunity Syndrome
24. The Enterprise Incident
25. Day of the Dove

What's probably most surprising about my list: excluding "Space Seed" (I'm not all that big of a fan of TWOK either). I probably have a few second season ones I doubt will appear on anyone else's list, like "Friday's Child", "Who Mourns..." and "Obsession".

 

[donners22]

In chronological order:

* What Are Little Girls Made Of?
* Miri
* The Corbomite Manoeuvre
* The Menagerie 1 & 2
* The Conscience of the King
* Balance of Terror
* The Galileo Seven
* Arena
* Space Seed
* Errand of Mercy
* The City on the Edge of Forever
* Amok Time
* Mirror, Mirror
* The Doomsday Machine
* Journey to Babel
* The Trouble with Tribbles
* A Piece of the Action
* The Ultimate Computer
* Assignment Earth

I don't have S3 on DVD and haven't watched any of them in many years, but I don't recall any particular gems from that.

 

[Qonundrum]

I have been doing rewatches of a lot of the Trek shows recently. Before Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and DISCO ended their runs, I did a re-watch. Also rewatched SNW before S3 started.

And I am late S2 on a TOS rewatch at the moment. But TOS was my first Trek, and I have seen them all before.

As I went through them, I did so with an eye to trying to pick my favorite episodes out. Some that I thought I would love did not resonate as much this last time through. And others I thought were poor were better than I expected. Anyway, for NuTrek, I have a decent idea in my head, of what my favorites were and were not. And I wanted to bring that to the earlier shows, though it is much harder to do with many more episodes.

Anyway, I came up with 25% arbitrarily. The top quartile of episodes. I wanted a number where the great/my favorite episodes could likely all fit, and the cut off was in the very good range with a lot of options. Anyway, 20 out of 80 (Cage included) is a nice, round number.

I must admit, my list is pretty generic. Not a lot of novel choices. Maybe as I rewatch the back end of S2 & S3, I will revisit.

And I thought it might increase my appreciation for other episodes if other folk shared their top 20s as well.

Anyway, here goes:

1. City on the Edge of Forever S1E28
2. The Doomsday Machine S2E6
3. The Menangerie S1E11-12
4. Mirror, Mirror S2E4
5. Amok Time S2E1
6. The Corbomite Manuever S1E10
7. Balance of Terror S1E14
8. This Side of Paradise S1E24
9. Where No Man Has Gone Before S1E3
10. The Trouble with Tribbles S2E15
11. The Enterprise Incident S3E2
12. Journey To Babel S2E10
13. A Taste of Armageddon S1E23
14. The Devil In The Dark S1E25
15. Space Seed S1E25
16. The Tholian Web S3E9
17. All Our Yesterdays S3E23
18. The Cage, aired 1988
19. Tomorrow Is Yesterday S1E19
20. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield S3E15

Pretty standard fare for a top 20, save maybe for Armageddon, The Cage, and Tomorrow Is Yesterday. And that is technically 21, as Menagerie is a double.

Not quite room for "Arena," "Shore Leave," "The Galileo Seven," "The Enemy Within," "The Naked Time," or "A Piece of the Action."

Or guilty pleasures like "Errand of Mercy," "Return of the Archons," "The Conscience of the King," "Court Martial," or "The Squire of Gothos."

If I had to go 33% (27 episodes), they would probably come from those 11 atm.

I can get to 35-40 TOS episodes I like a lot without breaking a sweat. I think fully half.

Anyway, have at me, as Sulu would say. Feel free to share your top 20 and maybe I will appreciate some others a bit more.

So a disclaimer, I'm older than the dirt that nobody scooped up in the gn-z11 galaxy somewhere, but going by memory (but not Memory Alpha), here are my top 20 that are also not necessarily in order of favorites, since "The Tholian Web" takes that when any 19 of the others don't on any given day...:

1. A Taste of Armageddon
2. Space Seed
3. The Doomsday Machine
4. The Immunity Syndrome
5. Day of the Dove
6. The Tholian Web
7. The Enterprise Incident
8. All Our Yesterdays
9. The Gamesters of Triskelion
10. Balance of Terror
11. Requiem for Methuseleh
12. Friday's Child
13. The Menagerie
14. Mudd's Women
15. Is There in Truth No Beauty
16. I, Mudd
17. Bread and Circuses
18. Plato's Stepchildren
19. The Ultimate Computer
20. The Naked Time

Honorable mentions, which could swap out some of the aforementioned 20 by a thread thinner than my hairline:

• Tomorrow is Yesterday
• Return to Tomorrow
• The Conscience of the King
• That Which Survives
• Where No Man Has Gone Before

Which then makes it 25, just shy of 1/3rd TOS's run.

And a double honorable-mention as, while they didn't make the cut, they round up the top-third and still had enough that's memorable for good reasons:

• Who Mourns for Adonis
• Elaan of Troyius
• The Cloud Minders
• The Enemy Within

As much as I like "The Cage" for what it was (the very first pilot, the first line on the Etch-a-Sketch, the blob of silly putty yet to be applied, etc), and missing out some of the more philosophical/cerebral nature that "The Cage" was aiming for, the retooling that led to TOS as aired was easily worth it, and reuse of the bulk of footage for "The Menagerie" was nothing less than inspired. Especially for worldbuilding. Even if it was by happenstance to save costs because of how expensive the show was for the time.

 

[Phaser Two]

Here are mine, in production order:

1. The Cage
2. The Corbomite Manuever
3. The Naked Time
4. Balance of Terror
5. Arena
6. Return of the Archons
7. A Taste of Armageddon
8. The Devil In The Dark
9. The City on the Edge of Forever
10. Friday's Child
11. Who Mourns for Adonais?
12. The Doomsday Machine
13. Amok Time
14. Mirror, Mirror
15. The Trouble with Tribbles
16. Journey To Babel
17. Obsession
18. The Ultimate Computer
19. The Tholian Web
20. That Which Survives


getting down to twenty was kind of hard, I think 25 would be my magic number, adding:

21. The Galileo Seven
22. The Apple
23. The Immunity Syndrome
24. The Enterprise Incident
25. Day of the Dove

What's probably most surprising about my list: excluding "Space Seed" (I'm not all that big of a fan of TWOK either). I probably have a few second season ones I doubt will appear on anyone else's list, like "Friday's Child", "Who Mourns..." and "Obsession".

Posting my list momentarily but "Friday's Child" and "Obsession" are, and have long been, in my Top 10, let alone Top 20. "Return of the Archons" too. Glad to see a kindred spirit. Nice list.

 

[Phaser Two]

My longtime Top 10 is:

1. "The Doomsday Machine" --------------> still has me on the edge of my seat every time
2. "Wolf in the Fold" ---------------> murder mystery and Jack the Ripper on Star Trek?? Yup for me
3. "Wink of an Eye" ---------------> love the dialogue, Kathie Browne and Jason Evers; the acceleration premise is fascinating with all its flaws; and one of the very few TOS episodes where the crew just nopes right out of there with no follow-up effort to save the Scalosians. Dark

From here on out you can mostly mix and match the rest of the Top 10 . . .

4. "The Tholian Web" ----------> Shatner isn't even missed it's so good
5. "Friday's Child" ------------> more great dialogue and acting and Kras is up there with the best Klingons ever for me
6. "Obsession" ** ---------------> tremendous Kirk character study
7. "The Ultimate Computer" ** -----------------> same, and pretty relevant today with automation and AI
8. "Return of the Archons" ------------> just had a good thread on this one on this board
9. "Devil in the Dark" ** ----------------> almost flawless and a great intro to TOS for a newcomer
10. "Mirror, Mirror" -------------------> has to be the best-acted episode in the series by the entire cast top-to-bottom. Not a weak performance among them

**feature, or are even carried by, astonishingly great Shatner performances

And then the next several just miss the Top 10:

11. "Day of the Dove" -------------> one of the most nonstop, best-paced episodes in the series
12. "By Any Other Name" --------> sue me, I'm a fan of eps where the Enterprise is seized by five-person alien takeover teams with three males and two females. Most-outrageous-crew-death-in-the-series award goes to poor Yeoman Thompson
13. "Space Seed" ----------> actually has some of the biggest plot holes or conveniences in the entire run, and I think Kirk would have been instantly court-martialed after this one, let alone not allowed to park 80 Augments on a planet of his choosing. But it's just SO GOOD, and gee whiz, the movie producers apparently thought so too
14. "The Savage Curtain" ---------> some of the best dialogue in TOS and for a late-season S3 entry, certainly spawned a load of canon lore and material (e.g., Kahless, Surak)
15. "Arena" --------------> should really be in my top 10; Cestus III is my favorite action sequence in TOS
16. "City of the Edge of Forever" -------> have to include it for the concept and Shatner/Nimoy/Kelley and manages to feel like it's twice its length or more; also has some massive plot conveniences like "Space Seed"
17. "Tomorrow is Yesterday" -----------> Just rewatched this one two nights ago for the first time in years and forgot how good it was; maybe this is recency bias but hey. One of the best-written episodes for Spock in the show's run and Roger Perry was compelling and ever-so-likable as Capt. Christopher
18. "The Cloud Minders" ----------------> My S3 partisanship shows again. Great premise still relevant today, we learn that the Federation is a little suspect in its membership admissions process, and for once in the series, everything works. The communicators, the phasers, the sensors, the transporters. Ironically, one of the most (ahem) grounded eps overall
19. "A Taste of Armageddon" ------------> Another one with modern-day relevance and salience to say the least. Doohan is fantastic in his coming-out party making Scotty an indispensable contributor
20. "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "Balance of Terror" (tied) --------------> amazing bridge action scenes and tension

Just missing would be "The Changeling" (more great bridge scenes in the first act and Shatner carries it), "Who Mourns for Adonais" (so mournful and sad and Spock is awesome) and "All Our Yesterdays" (another really poignant entry)

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

1 By Any Other Name
2 Plato's Stepchildren
3 The Gamesters of Triskelion
4 Friday's Child
5 The Deadly Years
6 Operation: Annihilate!
7 Day of the Dove
8 Charlie X
9 The Lights of Zetar
10 Space Seed
11 Spock's Brain
12 The Naked Time
13 Return To Tomorrow
14 Amok Time
15 I. Mudd
16 The Doomsday Machine
17 The Paradise Syndrome
18 The Changeling
19 Shore Leave
20 Requiem for Methuselah

You might detect some hidden patterns here. For example, I consider at least 16 of these episodes to be extra-sexy, though never for Kirkian reasons. But no disrespect intended to FRIDAY, DOOMSDAY, DOVE or NAKED. Had Julie Newmar not been pregnant while dressed in black, it could have joined the other 16.

(Honorable mention for THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME in 21st place.)