"Requiem for Methuselah"
"All Our Yesterdays"
My top two picks.
"All Our Yesterdays"
My top two picks.
Most Underrated TOS Episode?
- Thread starter tranya
- Start date
Hey... I'm a franchise weenie and like both episodes. But my limited brain has an easier time understanding The Omega Glory.
I've always considered Assignment: Earth! and Tomorrow is Yesterday to be two of my favorites. Patterns of Force and Day of the Dove are terribly underrated as well. I must say though that Spectre of the Gun is probably the most underrated episode of the entire series. What could have easily been a stupid episode with a ridiculous premise ended up being a very effective episode with a ridiculous premise. The aesthetics of the bad guys walking to the OK corale while the Enterprise crew are mind melding are terrific. The actual "gunfight" is kind of spooky and surreal. Overall, a very good...and underrated...episode.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
"risk is our business" and "An-TEEE-BODies" (two good kirk shows)
Those two, plus ULTIMATE COMPUTER and THE EMPATH (my alltimefave.)
As a female I'll add some ones I think are underrated from the romantic point of view.
Metamorphosis - sweet love story, happy ending, gave us Zephran Cochran and an unusual alien. Romance involving 2 guest stars that worked.
This Side of Paradise - great Kirk/Spock fight and great insult lines. Interesting and thought provoking perspective on chemical induced happiness. Spock in a love story is rare and fascinating if it works, and this one did.
Return to Tomorrow - sweet love story. Great "Risk is our business speech". Fascinating concept of an entire highly evolved species may have seeded the galaxy eons ago. Liked McCoy's integrity for not trading Kirk for Dr.Muldar.
All Our Yesterdays - sad, tragic love story, perhaps more tragic and thought provoking than COTEOF. Interesting concept of escaping supernova by time travel. Great Spock/McCoy interaction.
Metamorphosis - sweet love story, happy ending, gave us Zephran Cochran and an unusual alien. Romance involving 2 guest stars that worked.
This Side of Paradise - great Kirk/Spock fight and great insult lines. Interesting and thought provoking perspective on chemical induced happiness. Spock in a love story is rare and fascinating if it works, and this one did.
Return to Tomorrow - sweet love story. Great "Risk is our business speech". Fascinating concept of an entire highly evolved species may have seeded the galaxy eons ago. Liked McCoy's integrity for not trading Kirk for Dr.Muldar.
All Our Yesterdays - sad, tragic love story, perhaps more tragic and thought provoking than COTEOF. Interesting concept of escaping supernova by time travel. Great Spock/McCoy interaction.
GodThingFormerly
A Different Kind of Asshole
I'm not certain that Nancy Hedford ending up an alien-possessed zombie sex toy makes for a happy ending in the classical romantic sense. Well, okay, it probably does for Cochrane.
Kirk's "everything's alive!" speech is beautifully evocative, though.I'm sorry, but I'm totally unaware of any episode called The Empath. On the other hand, I had for years assumed that another of our mutual favorites, The Ultimate Computer, lifted its technological hook ("imprinting human engrams onto M-5's circuits") directly from Frank Herbert's 1966 LitSF novel Destination: Void, which was itself clearly inspired by Norbert Wiener's 1964 monograph God & Golem, Inc. A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impingers on Religion. However, John Meredyth Lucas' 2004 autobiography Eighty Odd Years in Hollywood: Memoir of a Career in Film and Television claimed that the writer responsible for submitted the original TUC treatment - presumably Laurence N. Wolfe - was a mathematician at JPL whom one may hope didn't knock off a then very recent high-profile LitSF novel to make his first (and it would appear, last) television sale.
TGT
Did you make that Avatar with Photoshop? It is hilarious!
I also love The Ultimate Computer. Funny how the theme of humans being replaced by robots is more of a reality now than it was when the episode was first broadcast.
Anyway, there are so many good episodes that are not considered to be the best, that it really shows how good TOS was when compared to other shows past or present. If you stop to think about it, there were really only 2 episodes that were painfully aweful to watch (Alternative Factor and And the Children Shall Lead). Even Is There In Truth No Beauty has some redeeming characteristics in spite of the distorted camera work and that terrible sticcato music that accompanied it. Spock's brain, as bad as it was, is still pretty fun to watch even if just for it's campiness. Compare Spock's Brain to, say, Shades of Grey and I think you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, there are so many good episodes that are not considered to be the best, that it really shows how good TOS was when compared to other shows past or present. If you stop to think about it, there were really only 2 episodes that were painfully aweful to watch (Alternative Factor and And the Children Shall Lead). Even Is There In Truth No Beauty has some redeeming characteristics in spite of the distorted camera work and that terrible sticcato music that accompanied it. Spock's brain, as bad as it was, is still pretty fun to watch even if just for it's campiness. Compare Spock's Brain to, say, Shades of Grey and I think you'll see what I mean.
I want to second "The Conscience of the King" and add a personal favorite "Elaan of Troyus"
I love the character interplay of Conscience and the utter sympahty I feel for Lt. Riley towards the end. I loved the feel of historical depth it provided Kirk with the Kodos affair.
Also the interplay between Kirk and the brat of a princess heading to Troyus. Not to mention the joy of watching our miracle worker struggle with the necklace cyrstals as the ship is being pounded on by the Kilingons.
I love the character interplay of Conscience and the utter sympahty I feel for Lt. Riley towards the end. I loved the feel of historical depth it provided Kirk with the Kodos affair.
Also the interplay between Kirk and the brat of a princess heading to Troyus. Not to mention the joy of watching our miracle worker struggle with the necklace cyrstals as the ship is being pounded on by the Kilingons.
That made my list of "underrated," too. Very atmospheric and moody. And arguably the most NON-STAR TREK episode of any of the series until "11:59(VOY)" and "Far Beyond the Stars(DS9)" came along decades later.
Spock's Brain
Seriously.
Because of it being the Season Three premier it got more attention than it should have and has been overwhelmingly maligned.
But the first half of the episode is really pretty decent.
And the last half has a fistfight.
Basically, if you turn it off when McCoy begins operating to restore Spocks' Brain, it is pretty tolerable.
Seriously.
Because of it being the Season Three premier it got more attention than it should have and has been overwhelmingly maligned.
But the first half of the episode is really pretty decent.
And the last half has a fistfight.
Basically, if you turn it off when McCoy begins operating to restore Spocks' Brain, it is pretty tolerable.
Everyone rolls their eyes at "Patterns of Force" because of the Nazi's. However, I find the whole concept of the episode continually compelling. The fact that Gill isn't a power-mad guy or some kind of warlord trying to take advantage of a primitive culture to set himself up as their leader, but is a scholar unfortunately tempted to tamper with another civilization for their own good is still interesting today.
I concur. Spectre of the Gun is underrated. The bad guys were excellently portrayed as tough, cold, almost mindless lawmen. This episode uses camera angles very effectively and has a way of turning a fairly low-budget set into a plus instead of a minus. It has unique mood music, and the dialogue between the regulars is very sharp, with Nimoy giving a particularly memorable performance.
I would go with "A Taste of Armageddon" - which manages to comment well on contemporary geopolitics and arms races, while also NOT needing to pretend there's a parallel Earth, copycat Nazis, or sun worshippers. Ditto for "A Private Little War", which is not nearly as well done.
And I have a soft spot for "Requiem for Methuselah" in that it brings up an interesting idea - a man who has lived for millenia and been many prominent historical figures - meh on the girlie android, but kudos for Flint.
And I have a soft spot for "Requiem for Methuselah" in that it brings up an interesting idea - a man who has lived for millenia and been many prominent historical figures - meh on the girlie android, but kudos for Flint.
Until the day my mom died, it was one of her all-time favorites. She poked cheesy fun at Mariette Hartley's fashionable hairdo and makeup job for a woman stranded 5,000 years in a frigid, frozen past
but always adored and got into the story and the characters' reactions to being trapped in Sarpeidon's past history.Similar threads
