Favourite Episode and Why?

[Curios_Gelatin]

Hi all! I just rewatched some TOS episodes and wondered what are some of your top favourites?

I recently re-watched 'The Trouble with Tribbles' and found that I really love that episode for its use of humour and narrative. I feel like it has a lot of funny character moments with the crew we don't get to see very often and the story, though light, doesn't suffer for it at all in my opinion.

 

[BillJ]

"A Taste of Armageddon"

Cowboy diplomacy for the win!

 

[Curios_Gelatin]

"A Taste of Armageddon"

Cowboy diplomacy for the win!

Ahh I love that episode too! Mostly because the idea of war waged with computers a pretty horrifying thought... It's such a plausible idea it makes me shudder. It really makes you think about whether we could really go that far one day...

 

[erastus25]

Balance of Terror or The Cage.

 

[Christopher Miles]

"A Taste of Armageddon"

Cowboy diplomacy for the win!

Ahh I love that episode too! Mostly because the idea of war waged with computers a pretty horrifying thought... It's such a plausible idea it makes me shudder. It really makes you think about whether we could really go that far one day...

Drones. Coming to a theatre (of war) near you.

No fighters, yet lots of casualties.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

"A Taste of Armageddon"

Cowboy diplomacy for the win!

Ahh I love that episode too! Mostly because the idea of war waged with computers a pretty horrifying thought... It's such a plausible idea it makes me shudder. It really makes you think about whether we could really go that far one day...

Drones. Coming to a theatre (of war) near you.

No fighters, yet lots of casualties.

Mirror Garrovick loves your Mirror Universe Tribble avatar.

---

Favorite episode? "The Doomsday Machine" (original effects). Why? It was the TOS episode that excited me most when I first watched TOS, and it still holds up its end of the entertainment bargain.

 

[RogueVasad]

Balance of Terror

 

[ZapBrannigan]

My childhood favorites were all music-influenced:

- The Paradise Syndrome: superb Gerald Fried score, Sabrina Scharf as Miramanee, and the ultra-cool obelisk design. Before the VCR era began, I always loved seeing this one come around in syndication. To this day my eyes can well up at the conclusion.

- The Doomsday Machine: Sol Kaplan's leitmotif score tells a whole saga in itself; the episode features tons of battle action.

- Requiem for Methuselah: tremendous use of tracked music for Kirk's romance, and Rayna is an incredibly lifelike fembot who reminds me of Jean Marsh in The Twilight Zone episode "The Lonely." And there's a cameo appearance by the three-foot Enterprise model.

Of course, should the truth be known, there are only about eight episodes that are not in some sense my favorites. It's a good series.

 

[LadyT'Anna]

My childhood favorites were all music-influenced:

Many of mine, too, although I was introduced to Trek/TOS later in life.

- The Paradise Syndrome: superb Gerald Fried score, Sabrina Scharf as Miramanee, and the ultra-cool obelisk design. Before the VCR era began, I always loved seeing this one come around in syndication. To this day my eyes can well up at the conclusion.

I'll confess to greatly enjoying the tribal theme with the drums, and I, too, found the Kirk-Miramanee romance emotionally moving. I also enjoyed seeing Spock think through a complex (dare I say multifaceted?) problem while in command, and I liked watching him play show-and-tell with McCoy near the beginning of the episode. (The meld was a bit overdone, though.)

- The Doomsday Machine: Sol Kaplan's leitmotif score tells a whole saga in itself; the episode features tons of battle action.

Interesting. I'm not usually one for flash-bang action, but it was treated well in this episode. (I wonder whether Roddenberry was poking gentle fun at it by demonstrating a case where it really wouldn't be useful; of course nothing was going to penetrate solid neutronium, but a gung-ho Decker ordered Sulu to fire anyway!) I very much enjoyed the character work in this episode, especially between Decker and Spock. The planet-killer theme was a majestic leitmotif indeed. And did you catch the "Amen" chord progression near the end when Kirk gives an order from the Constellation? Cracks me up every time!

- Requiem for Methuselah: tremendous use of tracked music for Kirk's romance, and Rayna is an incredibly lifelike fembot who reminds me of Jean Marsh in The Twilight Zone episode "The Lonely." And there's a cameo appearance by the three-foot Enterprise model.

There's something almost Shavian about Flint; the script's take on reincarnation both intrigues and saddens me. It was rather wonderful to see Kirk waltzing with Rayna and Spock acting as accompanist (while simultaneously making a musical discovery). And Spock's gentleness in the meld with Kirk gets me teary every time; I am a sentimental sap.

Of course, should the truth be known, there are only about eight episodes that are not in some sense my favorites. It's a good series.

Very much so. And the three episodes above are among my top 10.

 

[The Old Mixer]

"The Enemy Within"...intriguing concept in general, the trio dynamic starts to come together, and it's the Shat's hamsterpiece.

 

[Warped9]

This is a helluva question. There are so many I really like for different reasons.

I really like "Balance Of Terror" and "The Corbomite Maneuver," but there really are too many favourites to choose from.

 

[Greg Cox]

On other day I would probably have another answer, but the first titles that came to mind were:

"The Devil in the Dark"

"Journey to Babel."

 

[Melakon]

There are too many favorites for me to single out one above all others, but I tend to prefer episodes dealing with the nature of the mind vs. reality. That said...

The Cage/The Menagerie
The Naked Time
What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Dagger of the Mind
The Return of the Archons
Mirror, Mirror
Obsession
Spectre of the Gun

 

[Sparkle Fabulosa]

#1 favourite?

All Our Yesterdays. Spock-centric and I'm a sucker for tragic romances.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

Arena. Love the Gorn, it's suspenseful, a great performance from Shatner and the message and ending is the epitome of what Star Trek is supposed to be about.

 

[T'Bonz]

The Trouble with Tribbles - humor
The Doomsday Machine -drama. Music
Immunity Syndrome -drama. Spock/McCoy interaction
Balance of Terror -drama. Romulans! Mark Lenard
Day of the Dove - good little story
The Naked Time - sense of community in the early days on the ship
The Devil in the Dark - monster is not a monster after all
Operation: Annihilate - drama
Obsession - good Kirk story
Assignment Earth - story
The Tholian Web - Spock/McCoy interaction
Journey to Babel - for Sarek alone. Plus McCoy's ending line
Turnabout: Intruder - guilty pleasure

These are my favorites.

 

[RandyS]

Hi all! I just rewatched some TOS episodes and wondered what are some of your top favourites?

I recently re-watched 'The Trouble with Tribbles' and found that I really love that episode for its use of humour and narrative. I feel like it has a lot of funny character moments with the crew we don't get to see very often and the story, though light, doesn't suffer for it at all in my opinion.

"Mirror Mirror" because, Star Trek or not, stories abut parrallel universes are my favorite type of sci-fi stories.

Plus, it's just a great episode.

I also agree with your choice of "The Trouble With Tribbles". If I had to pick a second favorite, that would most likely be it.

 

[Spock's Barber]

There are so many episodes that stand out, but my favorite is "The Tholian Web". Just the title alone sounds cool.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The Doomsday Machine. Fast paced, great story, fantastic performances, best score of the series. The effects, while not entirely successful, were ambitious and still told the story.

For a show in the middle of the Coon regime, it was shockingly low on humor, which I enjoyed. Nothing forced. It's my go-to episode, the one I obsessed over as a kid, that I would just sit in front of the TV with my tape recorder ready to grab it when it ran.

And I can't reiterate strongly enough that I feel it has the best musical score of the series. Huge and epic with great themes, Sol Kaplan knocked it out of the park. Of all the scores on the CD box set, both this and Kaplan's other episode, The Enemy Within, are the only two where I have every single cue on my Best Of Star Trek play list. Not a wasted note. No meandering or droning, he composed perfect scores.

Out of 5 stars, The Doomsday Machine gets 8096

 

[1001001]

I go back and forth between Balance of Terror and The Doomsday Machine.

BOT is just wonderfully written. Tight, tense.

TDM is so tragic.

I think both are great stories, perfectly executed.