Focusing on the epic episodes...I mean all of the Star Treks...well, except Enterprise, of course...had epic episodes. Enterprise had one episode that stood out in my mind. But going down the list now.
To me, an "epic" episode is one where the story is just told so well that I can't help but remember nearly the entire episode even years after the fact, AND/OR there were characters whose development was so good, or their acting so good, as to stand out in my mind. Usually these are tertiary characters, not main ones. I mean we all will remember Worf and Data, and I'm sure The Doctor will be an ongoing staple in people's minds, but...well, let's just get to it.
TOS
- Hell, all of them in Season 1. The salt creature, Charlie X, Gary Mitchell, evil Kirk, Christine Chapel, Christopher Pike, the Gorn, Trelane, Khan, Ben Finney....the list goes on and on. No other Trek has managed to replicate the greatness that was Season 1.
- Season 2 wasn't bad, but it paled in comparison to part 1. The only ones that stood out were the Doomsday Machine, Apollo, M5, Spock's "Bitter Dregs", Sauron, and Nomad.
- Season 3...Here's where some of the writing got serious again. "The Way to Eden" was probably the most effective episode in the whole series. There were others that were comeplling but not like that one. It wasn't even that good of a story, it was just told extremely well and the ending was excellent. Second only to that was The Empath, moreso for the work of Kathryn Hays. It's amazing that in a 45-minute episode where the lead character doesn't say a single word that she should be so enticing and powerful in the role.
TNG
- You know, most people criticized Season 1 of TNG. And in truth, they were trying too hard to be a cleaner version of TOS. But Season 1 had its moments. "Encounter at Farpoint" is probably the best in the whole Season, and it introduced a long-standing favorite in Q. "Too Short a Season" seemed ludicrous on the surface, but it actually presented a fairly well told story. "Conspiracy" remains to this day my favorite TNG episode, that unfortunately was never properly concluded. It was campy for the time, but it had potential.
- In general, TNG is the one Trek where for some reason, the tertiary characters got more focus than the main ones. TNG also did an outstanding job of developing memorable characters using very few episodes.
- Ro Laren was barely focused on but in like three episodes, yet in those episodes she got more character development than even Riker.
- One of my favorite episodes involved a young Bajoran woman, Ensign Sito, who is first involved in a conspiracy with Wesley at Starfleet, then later sacrifices herself to help a Cardassian get home. The back story isn't all that great, but the development of her character is absolutely incredible, to the point you feel the emotional attachment at the end.
- Then there's Barclay, who basically went from a fumbling idiot who had Holodeck fantasies with Troi to...a fumbling idiot with a cult following.
- You had Keh'lar, who was seen for a grand total of MAYBE 30 minutes across the episodes she was in, brutally murdered, yet the interaction between her, Worf and Alexander is tangible.
- Later-to-be-Chief O'Brien, who wasn't even there for the first episodes, became not only a mainstay on TNG but also on DS9. Don't get me wrong - there was way too much Keiko focus. But the man has true talent, and TNG turned him from a veritable nobody to one of the team with little to work with in terms of back story.
DS9
- Deep Space NIne easily had the best overall stories of all of the Trek shows. At times it felt like an ongoing movie. It also developed what came before very well, and while there was some fan service (Trials and Tribblations), it was never overemphasized.
- Say what you will about Avery Brooks, the man can act. I'm sorry. I simply cannot imagine anyone else leading the show. He just worked. Some of the prophet stuff was a little too deep, but that wasn't his fault. He played the role perfectly.
- DS9 took a bunch of nobodys and turned them into stars. Where guys like Alexander Siddig/Siddig El Fadil had done little things here and there, he didn't really get much in the way of large roles until after DS9 (Syriana, for one). René and Nana both showed acting talent that they hadn't been able to show much of up until that point, and Terry Farrell (Jadzia) wasn't that interesting, but she did the role the best with what she was given. NIcole de Boer didn't get much of a chance since she came in late, but I was impressed with what I got. Armin Shimmerman (Quark)...well, he speaks for himself. He might have been too good as Quark.
- Other elements that were developed out in DS9 that were introduced in previous Trek series were the Maquîs, first seen in TNG, Cardassians, first seen in TNG, the mirror universe, first seen in TOS, the Trill, first seen in TOS, Ferengi, first seen in TOS, and Betazoids, first seen in TOS and VOY. Basically, Deep Space Nine took introduced ideas and expanded upon them. Not every idea was great ("the only thing that you should fear is fear itself!!"), but there was a lot of good material here.
- Tony Todd remains one of my favorite actors. He's played Kern every time we've seen him, and done an excellent job as he always does, but he was absolutely amazing alongside Avery Brooks in "The Visitor", playing an older Jake Sisko. The energy between these two great actors was so high that for a second I believed there actually was a book called "Anslem".
- We got to see music performances. You can't beat that! I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought Vic Fontaine was a real person, that's how well that hologram was written (see The Doctor and Moriarty).
VOY
- Voyager got off to a rocky start for sure. Janeway was too uptight (even her hair), Chakotay was annoying, they were picking up aliens left and right, the Maquis had attitudes...it was just irritating. But then they started to get their stride in the middle of the series.
- Kes was annoying to a lot of people, but I have no choice but to credit great acting in the episode where she was taken over by the warlord. Easily one of the most memorable of the series.
- In the episode where Tuvok must train four ex-Maquis misfits (who ironically we never see again), we get to see the Vulcan knocked down a few notches by Neelix in the interpersonal skills category. This makes Neelix look a lot more valuable than he had to that point.
- Torres had a horrible look at first and didn't really stand out, but then they accentuated her female characteristics and gave her a strong personality with a pinch of sexuality. This, coupled with clear intelligence and an internal Klingon struggle, lent greatly to the show.
- The Doctor, being the one Trek character without a name, is easily the most developed of all of the Voyager crew. Considering he's just a hologram, I would put him on the same level in terms of holographic development as Moriarty...someone you actually attribute feelings and emotions too.
- My absolute favorite character in all of Star Trek has got to be Lon Suder. The episode with him retaking the ship...easily the most well written of the entire Voyager series. They took a sociopath who killed for no clear reason, melded with Tuvok to find serenity, and thrust him into a situation where he had to rely on his killer instincts to save the ship. Very well written.
ENT
- Unfortunately, the only memorable episodes on Enterprise were:
- Hoshi thinking she's disappeared due to a transporter incident, which while it wasn't really a "good" episode, it was more that Linda Park's acting in the episode stood out in my mind.
- The first time T'Pol called Tucker "Trip" in frustration over the situation of her being compelled to marry another man. You saw a human side of T'Pol that to that point was rare.
- "In A Mirror, Darkly" was a strange episode. For some reason an older Enterprise was able to break the Tholian Web yet the newer version could not - but some of the acting was really good here, especially Park and Blalock.
