Favorite Performances by Series Leads?

[Trekfan4387]

What's your favorite Star Trek performance given by each series lead? I'm personally going to stick to episodes, but feel free to name a feature film!

TOS
William Shatner - "The City on the Edge of Forever"
Leonard Nimoy - "Amok Time"
DeForest Kelley - "The Corbomite Maneuver"
James Doohan - "The Doomsday Machine"
George Takei - "The Naked Time"
Nichelle Nichols - "Mirror, Mirror"
Walter Koenig - "Day of the Dove"

TNG
Patrick Stewart - "The Inner Light"
Jonathan Frakes - "Frame of Mind"
LeVar Burton - "I, Borg"
Denise Crosby - "Yesterday's Enterprise"
Michael Dorn - "Reunion"
Gates McFadden - "Remember Me"
Marina Sirtis - "Face of the Enemy"
Brent Spiner - "The Offspring"
Wil Wheaton - "The First Duty"

DS9
Avery Brooks - "In the Pale Moonlight"
Rene Auberjonois - "Necessary Evil"
Nicole de Boer - "Penumbra"
Michael Dorn - "By Inferno's Light"
Terry Farrell - "Rejoined"
Cirroc Lofton - "The Visitor"
Colm Meaney - "Hard Time"
Armin Shimerman - "The Siege of AR-558"
Alexander Siddig - "The Quickening"
Nana Visitor - "Duet"

VGR
Kate Mulgrew - "Counterpoint"
Robert Beltran - "Nemesis"
Roxann Dawson - "Lineage"
Jennifer Lien - "Before and After"
Robert Duncan McNeil - "Lineage"
Ethan Phillips - "Jetrel"
Robert Picardo - "Real Life"
Tim Russ - "Meld"
Jeri Ryan - "Drone"
Garrett Wang - "The Chute"

ENT
Scott Bakula - "Damage"
John Billingsley - "Dear Doctor"
Jolene Blalock - "Twilight"
Dominic Keating - "Shuttlepod One"
Anthony Montgomery - "Demons"
Linda Park - "Fight or Flight"
Connor Trinneer - "Cogenitor"

 

[Jedi Marso]

The only one of those I'd feel inclined to change is the very first one: For the Shat it would be Court Martial.

 

[Tracy Trek]

I also feel like Patrick Stewart was at his best when he was pleading Data's case in Measure of a Man. And that scene in his ready room when he was full Capt. Ahab mode in Generations.

 

[Vger23]

And that scene in his ready room when he was full Capt. Ahab mode in Generations.

First Contact?

 

[Tracy Trek]

OOPS! You're right. Thanks, it was First Contact.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Yours is a strong list, and my "corrections" are but minor improvements.

Kirk: Balance of Terror
Scotty: A Taste of Armaggedon

Picard: Tapestry
Worf: Sins of the Father

Odo: Chimera
Jake: Nor the Battle Unto The Strong (The Visitor is my strongest objection because I don't think Lofton contributed as much to the episode's success.)
Kira: Rocks and Shoals

T'Pol and Trip: Demons/Terra Prime

 

[Tenacity]

Kirk reading the Preamble to the US Constitution, fantastic.

 

[Vandervecken]

Nimoy as Henoch, Return to Tomorrow. Then as Spock in Specter of the Gun. I just like him delivering his explanations so much here.
Kirk, the Doomsday Machine
Scotty, That Which Survives
McCoy, The Immunity Syndrome

Picard, Yesterday's Enterprise, honorable mention for Tapestry
Riker, The Royale
Data, The Most Toys
La Forge, Thine Own Self, for holo La Forge accepting a suicide order
Troi, Face of the Enemy
Worf, Parallels
Crusher, Remember Me
Yar, Naked Now

Although I enjoy both DS9 and Voyager, I am not as immersed in them and so can't comment as surely as I do for TOS and TNG. But I do love Counterpoint and it is a top 5 overall Voy ep for me (in OP's list for Mulgrew). Ent I know next to nothing

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Anyone interested in doing a list for the big recurring characters: Guinan, Q, Lwaxana, Ogawa, Barclay (TNG and VOY), Alexaner, Pulaski, Lore, Miles O'Brien (TNG), Keiko O'Brien (TNG and DS9), Ro, Garak, Dukat, Damar, Weyoun, Nog, Rom, Kassidy, Winn, Morn, Martok, Eddington, Female Shapeshifter, Zek, Gowron, Joe Sisko, Seska, Naomi Wildman, Icheb, Kullah, Borg Queen, Shran, Forrest, Daniels, Degra, Silik, Saval.

(There are probably others, but Bareil Antos was purposely omitted from consideration.)

 

[Cyfa]

I think William Shatner's finest acting hour was in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The mind meld with Sarek and his reaction to David's death (but not, curiously enough, the destruction of the Enterprise) are particular high points for me. In fact, I think TSFS was a good showcase for a lot of the TOS regulars as they all had something meaningful to do.

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

The ones that come to mind first are:

Kate Mulgrew - Counterpoint (duh!)
Robert Picardo - Real Life
Jeri Ryan - Infinite Regress
Ethan Phillips - Jetrel
Leonard Nimoy - All Our Yesterdays