What episodes do you most remember from watching Star Trek as a kid?

[korblborp]

Balance of Terror - one of my favorites. i think it ties into also watching lot of ww2 movies at the same age, specifically one about the cat-and-mouse played between a destroyer and a submarine, the name of which escapes me.

Catspaw - CAAAAAPTAAAAIIIN KIIRRRRRRKKKK, YOUUUU SHAAAALLLLL DIIIEEEE, the crystal box, the cat, the pathetic remnants of the antagonists' true forms...

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Balance of Terror - one of my favorites. i think it ties into also watching lot of ww2 movies at the same age, specifically one about the cat-and-mouse played between a destroyer and a submarine, the name of which escapes me.

The Enemy Below.

 

[korblborp]

The Enemy Below.

thank you. i should probably track it down and watch it again, it's been ages since i watched any of those old war movies.

 

[evil bob m]

I remember staying up to 1 a.m. one Thursday night in the mid-'70s to watch Tomorrow is Yesterday because it was one of the few episodes I hadn't see yet but was familiar with it from The World of Star Trek. To this day when I watch it I can still remember how I felt watching it for the first time.

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

I'm unsure what episode it was in my first-ever Trek-related memory, which is being shown some episode by my father and absolutely hating it. My dad tells me I asked after it was done, "Dad, can we never watch that again?" (Look how that turned out. )
My first memory of watching a particular episode, I was twelve and the episode was 'Amok Time.' I remember my immature twelve-year-old brain thought that the entire premise of the episode was absurdly funny, so I was just laughing at it for half the episode.

 

[Phaser Two]

I'm unsure what episode it was in my first-ever Trek-related memory, which is being shown some episode by my father and absolutely hating it. My dad tells me I asked after it was done, "Dad, can we never watch that again?" (Look how that turned out. )

Hmm. Wonder if this was one of the scary ones?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Monster ones stuck out in my preteen mind. Salt Vampires, the Gorn and the Horta.

 

[I am not Herbert]

Monster ones stuck out in my preteen mind. Salt Vampires, the Gorn and the Horta.

Me too. Funny, for all three we are asked to see things from the ostensible monster's point of view (to varying degrees). I'd like to think some of that seeped into my own preteen worldview.

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

Hmm. Wonder if this was one of the scary ones?

Not that I remember. What I remember is thinking it was really, really boring, although given that I couldn't have been older than seven when this happened, I barely remember, so it very well could have been and I forgot.

 

[Phaser Two]

Not that I remember. What I remember is thinking it was really, really boring, although given that I couldn't have been older than seven when this happened, I barely remember, so it very well could have been and I forgot.

Sounds plausible. Could have been a talkier ep without much for a kid like, say, Metamorphosis.

 

[Artoo Atari]

My earliest memory of Star Trek was seeing part of "And the Children Shall Lead" as a little kid at my grandparents' house. Scared the crap out of me.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

My first Trek was the animated ones on Saturday mornings in 1973, so the first one I must have seen was BTFS with the giant alien ship.

 

[Noname Given]

For me it's:

Elaan Of Troyius * they first Star Trek episode I saw as a kid on NBC in 1969. I really like the episode and I tried to catch the series whenever I could from that point on.


The other episode that really blew me away when I first saw it later in syndication as a 12 year old kid was The Corbomite Maneuver and it remains my favorite #1 episode of the entire Star Trek franchise to this day.

 

[Henoch]

My first memory of Star Trek was Who Mourns For Adonais? (my investigation puts this for its first US rerun on May 10 1968); the only thing I really remember was Apollo zapping Scotty with a lightning bolt!

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

STIV, but if it has to be an episode, it's not ones I watched, but ones I read the fotonovels of before ever watching them in adulthood - "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

 

[TrickyDickie]

I was born on April 20, 1967 and 'The City on the Edge of Forever' had aired on April 6. One of my older half-brothers had watched the series from the beginning. I have always wondered if my mother was watching that episode (never got around to asking her), because it has always competed with 'The Doomsday Machine', as to which is my favorite.

As to first actual memory....I think it may be the chant from 'And The Children Shall Lead'.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Two episodes always immediately come to mind with questions like these:

1. "The Devil in the Dark." The first episode I saw all the way through. It hooked me with its beautiful story about reconciliation.

2. "The Man Trap." Not in a good way. If it had been the first episode I saw, it would have, with its nightmare-fodder, also been my last.

In addition, I have strong positive memories of "Operation: Annihilate" and of especially the last ten minutes of "A Taste of Armageddon."

 

[Newt]

My first TOS I remember vividly watching was The Man Trap.

 

[tim0122]

I didn't catch TOS until later childhoold and didn't start watching it properly until my mid-late-20s. As a kid, I'd watched TNG and the original 10 films. But one day, a family friend and Trekkie showed me the stuffed Tribble that came with her VHS copy of Troubble with Tribbles. She showed me the episode, and while it was quite different from what I was used to, I remember enjoying it. Funny enough, the biggest adjustment wasn't the cheesiness, lack of alien makeup, or the garish colors but Scotty being thinner and mustache-less. I didn't even recognize him.

I only watched the episode once as a kid, but by default, it's the one I watched the most.

 

[Phaser Two]

I didn't catch TOS until later childhoold and didn't start watching it properly until my mid-late-20s. As a kid, I'd watched TNG and the original 10 films. But one day, a family friend and Trekkie showed me the stuffed Tribble that came with her VHS copy of Troubble with Tribbles. She showed me the episode, and while it was quite different from what I was used to, I remember enjoying it. Funny enough, the biggest adjustment was the cheesiness, lack of alien makeup, or the garish colors but Scotty being thinner and mustache-less. I didn't even recognize him.

I only watched the episode once as a kid, but by default, it's the one I watched the most.

That's interesting. It's rare to hear of someone who saw the movies with the original case before seeing any of TOS. What did you think of the first six movies, having no background with the characters?