Pick your favorite 40 TOS episodes

[Spider]

This poll is part of a larger effort going on in the other Trek TV series forums. We want to end up with everyone’s favorite 20 episodes from each series, and put all those episodes into one gigantic poll and have a run off in GTD, narrowing that down to everyone’s favorite Trek TV episodes of all time.

We’ll start off here by listing all the episodes from TOS and you picking your favorite 40. We will narrow it down from there to the 20 that will go into the GTD poll. After that, strictly for fun, we will have a few more polls taking that down to the final few and ending up with this forum’s favorite TOS episode. The Cage, of course, will be part of the poll. Not including that, even though it wasn’t shown on TV as part of the original series run, is a controversy I choose not to deal with. And besides which, I’m doing the poll, and I’m going to vote for it.

 

[Mallory]

Pinned for the duration. Thanks for doing the hard work Spider.

 

[Spider]

Glad to do the TOS poll. TOS and TNG are my favorites anyway.

 

[Mallory]

Well, picking the best 40 to start with is going to be a whole lot easier than picking the best three at the end. I guess I ought to enjoy this while I still can.

 

[BRG]

All right, my Top 40. This will take some time.

The Cage
Where No Man Has gone Before
The Naked Time
The Enemy Within
What Are Little Girls Made Of?
Dagger of the Mind
The Corbomite Manouver
The Conscience of the King
Ballance of Terror
Shore Leave
The Galileo Seven
The Squire of Gothos
Arena
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Space Seed
A Taste of Armageddon
This Side of Paradise
The Devil in the Dark
Errand of Mercy
The City on the Edge of Forever
Operation-Annihilate!
Amok Time
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
Metamorphosis
Journey to Babel
The Deadly Years
Obsession
Wolf in the Fold
The Trouble With Tribbles
The Gamesmasters of Triskelion
A Piece of the Action
The Immunity Syndrome
The Ultimate Computer
Bread and Circuses
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
All Our Yesterdays

Made it! I'll have to recount to make sure it's 40.
Most from season 1 & 2, which were excellent by any standard. A few from season 3, although it has been a decade since I saw this season, so I'm going on the few which stuck in my head.
BRG

PS- BBC2 have just started airing season 3 on Friday nights, so I may see a few in a differant light these days.

 

[Mallory]

I voted.

The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time, The Enemy Within, The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, The Galileo Seven, The Squire of Gothos, Arena, Tomorrow is Yesterday, The Return of the Archons, Space Seed, A Taste of Armageddon, The Devil in the Dark, Errand of Mercy, The City on the Edge of Forever, Operation Annihilate!, Amok Time, The Changeling, Mirror, Mirror, The Apple , The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, Friday's Child, The Deadly Years, Obsession, Wolf in the Fold, The Trouble with Tribbles, The Immunity Syndrome, The Ultimate Computer, The Enterprise Incident, Day of the Dove, The Tholian Web, The Empath, The Cloud Minders, All Our Yesterday's, By Any Other Name, What are Little Girls Made Of?, This Side of Paradise and A Piece of the Action

Certainly not my list of the Top 40 episodes, but it does contain most of them (IMO). I also threw in a few episodes that may not be all that great, but I just like watching them.

 

[Orac]

I could have easily voted for 50 episodes, I picked these 40.

The Cage
The Man Trap
Charlie X
Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Naked Time
The Enemy Within
What are Little Girls Made Of?
Miri
Dagger of the Mind
The Corbomite Maneuver
The Conscience of the King
Balance of Terror
Shore Leave
The Galieo Seven
The Squire of Gothos
Arena
Tomorrow is Yesterday
Space Seed
A Taste of Armageddon
This Side of Paradise
The Devil in the Dark
Errand of Mercy
The City on the Edge of Forever
Operation-Annihilate!
Amok Time
Who Morns for Adonias?
The Changeling
Mirror, Mirror
The Apple
The Doomsday Machine
Journey to Babel
The Deadly Years
The Trouble with Tribbles
The Immunity Syndrome
A Private Little War
Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
Elaan of Troyius
Whom God's Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

 

[Mallory]

I'm genuinely pleased to see some of my personal favorites are appreciated by others.

 

[defconprime]

Wow, I was the first one to vote for And the Children Shall Lead. Well, I'm not ashamed. I really like that episode. Space daggers!

From Season 1:

Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Corbomite Maneuver
The Man Trap
The Naked Time
Charlie X
Balance Of Terror
Miri
Shore Leave
Squire of Gothos
Taste of Armageddon
Space Seed
The City On The Edge of Forever

Then Season 2:

Who Mourns for Adonais?
Amok Time
Doomsday Machine
The Changeling
The Apple
Mirror, Mirror
I, Mudd
The Trouble With Tribbles
A Private Little War
Obsession
The Immunity Syndrome
A Piece of the Action
Patterns of Force
The Ultimate Computer

Then Season 3:

Spectre of the Gun
Elaan of Troyius
The Enterprise Incident
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There No Truth In Beauty?
The Tolian Web
Day of the Dove
Wink of an Eye
That Which Survives
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Whom Gods Destroy
Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
All Our Yesterdays

 

[Kagan]

These are my favorites at age 42. At age 8 when I fell in love with Star Trek in reruns, my list was very different. Tastes change with age...

Pilots 2 episodes
The Cage
Where No Man Has Gone Before

Season 1 14 episodes
The Man Trap
The Naked Time
What are Little Girls Made Of?
Dagger of the Mind
The Corbomite Maneuver
Balance of Terror
Shore Leave
The Galileo Seven
Arena
Court Martial
A Taste of Armageddon
The Devil in the Dark
Errand of Mercy
The City on the Edge of Forever

Season 2 13 episodes
Amok Time
The Changeling
Mirror, Mirror
The Doomsday Machine
Journey to Babel
The Deadly Years
Obsession
Wolf in the Fold
The Trouble With Tribbles
The Gamesters of Triskleon
A Piece of the Action
The Immunity Syndrome
The Omega Glory

Season 3 11 episodes
The Enterprise Incident
Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
That Which Survives
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder

 

[Alidar Jarok]

How am I supposed to only pick 40?

OK, seriously, picking 40 was actually tough (I picked 20 easily, 10 more with some more thought, and the last 10 was tough). Its such a large percentage of the show.

And I have no idea what I voted for anymore, just that I'm going to do my best to make sure Balance of Terror wins

 

[Bad Atom]

I thought Fry from Futurama said there were only 30 good episodes.

 

[Mallory]

^ Or you could just admit to being lazy and not wanting to Chekov 40 boxes.

OK, you guys can shoot me now.

 

[Spider]

OK, it's been seven days, which is how long I usually keeps these up. So, if a TOS mod would kindly close this one out, I'll get the next one up shortly.

The poll count when I called it stands as below. If more votes are cast after this, they won't count in this poll. And with such a large selection, it probably wouldn't make much of difference anyway. Total votes are to the side of the episode.

Balance of Terror 30
Mirror, Mirror 30
The Doomsday Machine 30
The Tholian Web 30
The City on the Edge of Forever 29
Amok Time 29
The Trouble with Tribbles 29
Where No Man Has Gone Before 28
Journey to Babel 28
The Enterprise Incident 28
The Naked Time 26
The Corbomite Maneuver 26
Errand of Mercy 26
Space Seed 25
The Cage 24
The Galieo Seven 24
Arena 24
Tomorrow Is Yesterday 24
A Piece of the Action 24
The Devil in the Dark 23
The Ultimate Computer 23
Day of the Dove 23
The Menagerie, Pt. 1 21
Shore Leave 21
The Immunity Syndrome 20
All Our Yesterdays's 20
The Enemy Within 19
The Menageire, Pt. 2 18
The Conscience of the King 18
Obsession 18
Court Martial 16
The Changeling 16
This Side of Paradise 16
Operation-Annihilate! 15
The Squire of Gothos 14
The Deadly Years 14
A Private Little War 13
Bread and Circuses 13
Return to Tomorrow 12
Assignment: Earth 12
The Paradise Syndrome 12

 

[Mallory]

Done.

 

[erastus25]

Interesting that The Tholian Web tied for the lead, yet is never mentioned as "the best episode" and only sometimes cracks top 10 lists.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

I'd just like to add the most notable episode that I left off. TTWT. Aside from Scotty's part in that episode it's just never done much for me.

 

[Mallory]

erastus25 said:
Interesting that The Tholian Web tied for the lead, yet is never mentioned as "the best episode" and only sometimes cracks top 10 lists.

I think that's because while everyone tends to agree that it's in the Top 40, it rarely falls into anyone's Top 10.