Top 10 Engaging and Family-friendly Episodes?

[Abbary]

My daughter and I have been watching the original series and I want to pick out the "must watch" episodes for her, but a number of episodes that are great are also kind of creepy (like Charlie X), and others feature Kirk and Yeoman Rand or some other woman like an Orion slave girl, and I'd rather stay away from all of that.

Examples of a few good ones might be "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", because it makes for an interesting conversation about time travel and features a few people from the past getting beamed up (the Air Policeman's reaction is hilarious), and "Arena", because the Gorn is so slow, it's funny rather than scary.

What would be your top 10 that meet these criteria?

Note: please exclude "The Trouble with Tribbles"!

 

[TOSalltheway]

Clearly the best episode for young children would be Shore Leave. What child would not want to go there.

PS Thanks for excluding Tribbles. I for one never liked that episode

 

[johnnybear]

My daughter and I have been watching the original series and I want to pick out the "must watch" episodes for her, but a number of episodes that are great are also kind of creepy (like Charlie X), and others feature Kirk and Yeoman Rand or some other woman like an Orion slave girl, and I'd rather stay away from all of that.

Examples of a few good ones might be "Tomorrow Is Yesterday", because it makes for an interesting conversation about time travel and features a few people from the past getting beamed up (the Air Policeman's reaction is hilarious), and "Arena", because the Gorn is so slow, it's funny rather than scary.

What would be your top 10 that meet these criteria?

Note: please exclude "The Trouble with Tribbles"!

You might think The Gorn was funny rather than scary, Abbary, but to me as a seven year old it was absolutely terrifying! In fact even now when it turns to the camera for the first time and roars it still gives me goosebumps!
JB

 

[BillJ]

My daughter and I have been watching the original series and I want to pick out the "must watch" episodes for her, but a number of episodes that are great are also kind of creepy (like Charlie X), and others feature Kirk and Yeoman Rand or some other woman like an Orion slave girl, and I'd rather stay away from all of that.

Better for her to explore that kind of material with you than learn about it on the playground.

 

[T'Girl]

How old is your daughter?

 

[Greg Cox]

"Shore Leave," as discussed.

"The Devil in the Dark." Yeah, there's a scary monster, but it's just a mother protecting her eggs. What kid can't understand that?

"The Corbomite Maneuver." Again, the scary monster turns out to be a friendly alien who looks like a baby.

"Assignment: Earth." Like "Tomorrow is Yesterday," a light-hearted time-travel caper in which all turns out well and everybody ends up friends. And there's a cool black cat.

"All Our Yesterdays". A sad ending, but nothing too scary and violent, and the sex is only implied.

"Catspaw." Hey, it's a Halloween episode: witches, ghosts, a haunted castle, and a spooky black cat. If a kid can cope with the usual Halloween fare, this should not be be beyond the pale.

 

[T'Girl]

What kid wouldn't enjoy watching Captain Kirk being buried under a small mountain of Tribbles?

 

[Botany Bay]

Kids, in my experience, enjoy the ones with monsters, and lots of colour and movement. So stick with Season 1 and early Season 2.

Favourites in my experience : Shore Leave, Devil in the Dark, Catspaw, Mirror Mirror, Tribbles, Friday's Child...

 

[Greg Cox]

For the record, my favorite episode as a kid was "Arena."

Captain Kirk defeats a lizard monster via a chemistry experiment!

 

[Botany Bay]

How could I forget that one! My five year old's favourite teddy bear was a Gorn. She wouldn't go to bed without it for a few years there!

Season three doesn't work...they seem to lose all interest and leave the room most episodes. One exception though : The Savage Curtain. Also awakened an interest in Abraham Lincoln from my oldest.

Watching TOS with kids, and seeing them enthralled by it = one of the great feelings!

 

[TOSalltheway]

Kids, in my experience, enjoy the ones with monsters, and lots of colour and movement. So stick with Season 1 and early Season 2.

Hence the beauty of "Devil in The Dark". A total bleh 1960s monster flick right until the message. Then it shows the true meaning of Trek.

 

[Kor]

"A Piece of the Action" is very entertaining and lighthearted. I think it would be OK for kids.

Kor

 

[Greg Cox]

DAY OF THE DOVE, perhaps. Violent but no serious consequences.

There's the bit where it's implied that the possessed Chekov intends to rape Mara, but, honestly, that flew over my head as a kid. Might be the same for a modern kid, depending on the age.

 

[Kor]

There's the bit where it's implied that the possessed Chekov intends to rape Mara, but, honestly, that flew over my head as a kid. Might be the same for a modern kid, depending on the age.

Yeah, when I was little, I thought he was going to hurt her in some unspecified way, but I didn't understand exactly how (or why, for that matter).

Kor

 

[Greg Cox]

"A Piece of the Action" is very entertaining and lighthearted. I think it would be OK for kids.

Kor

I thought about that one, but wondered if modern kids would even get what was being parodied: old-school Chicago mobsters and old gangster movies.

Or does that even matter?

 

[DrCorby]

My kids always enjoyed "The Squire of Gothos". Lots of broad humor, and he turns out to be a naughty kid.

 

[johnnybear]

There's the bit where it's implied that the possessed Chekov intends to rape Mara, but, honestly, that flew over my head as a kid. Might be the same for a modern kid, depending on the age.

Well the actual intended rape scene with the lust in Chekov's eyes was cut by the BBC and might still be as it's thirty five years since I last saw it on the BBC!
JB

 

[3D ChessMaster]

I think most of TOS are family friendly, I used to love them as a 7 year old and can not remember being upset by any episode and my parents were always very careful about what other shows they let us watch.
In the UK they did not broadcast Four episodes originally as they were considered too violent or disturbing IIRC they were Miri, The Empath, Whom the Gods Destroy and Plato's Stepchildren as there are some themes of torture.

 

[Greg Cox]

Depends on how sensitive a particular kid is, I suppose. Yeah, TOS never bothered me as a kid, except to the extent that the scary parts were supposed to be scary, and the sad parts were supposed to be sad, but I was also watching all sorts of scary stuff at the same age: The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, King Kong, Godzilla, etc. So the Gorn or the Horta were unlikely to give me nightmares.

Kids who are less monster-obsessed may react different.

 

[telerites]

I, Mudd and A Piece of the Action would be my two to start with since Troubles is off the table. Shore Leave next.