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Your Top 10 and Bottom 12 TOS Episodes

Desmondidae

Cadet
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Mnay people complain that a Top 10 list of episodes is simply too limiting since they may have 12, 13, 14 or 15 first rate TOS episodes.

For this reason, I decided to post a list of top 14 and bottom 12 TOS episodes.

My top 14 episodes are:
The City on the Edge of Forever, Space Seed, The Trouble with Tribbles, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, The Devil in the Dark, The Enterprise Incident, Journey to Babel, Amok Time, The Ultimate Computer, Dagger of the Mind, The Tholian Web, Balance of Terror and A Taste of Armageddon.

Meanwhile, my list of the worst 12 Star Trek episodes are: Spock's Brain, The Way to Eden, The Omega Glory, And the Children shall Lead, That Which Survives, The Alternative Factor, The Gamesters of Triskelion, The Mark of Gideon, Miri, The Lights to Zetar, Plato's Stepchildren and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.

"That Which Survives" was acted and put together so poorly that its no wonder Robert Justman left season 3 of Star Trek after this episode. Two strong Star Trek episodes in my view are “Day of the Dove” where we see how compelling Michael Ansara played the role of a ruthless Klingon leader and his wife, Mara, who is actually a scientist--and the real ‘dove’ of the episode and “Obsession” where Kirk's leadership abilities and judgment are called into question by his officers when he pursues an energy entity at the risk of delaying the delivery of badly needed medical supplies. But they aren't in my top 14 list unfortunately though I'd certainly recommend them.

But what is your list of top 14 and bottom 12 TOS episodes?
 
I'm just going to list my Top 10 and Bottom 10.

Top: Mirror, Mirror...City on the Edge of Forever...Shore Leave...Doomsday Machine...Obsession...Elaan of Troyius...Metamorphosis...The Tholian Web...The Empath...Requiem for Methuselah

Bottom: And the Children Shall Lead...Who Mourns for Adonais...Wolf in the Fold...The Apple...I, Mudd...Bread and Circuses...A Private Little War...A Piece of the Action...Patterns of Force...Plato's Stepchildren...
 
I love TOS to this day. Still, it varies wildly in quality.

My top 14 episodes (to difficult to rank in order)-

The Doomsday Machine (if you forced me to designate a top episode, I'd tend toward this eppy)

Journey to Babel--Spock's parents. Beautiful work. Enough said.

Balance of Terror (this would battle for top eppy)

The Empath--you can't beat the 3 way bromance and Kathryn Hays, who was on As the World Turns for 35 years, deserved her emmy for this.

City on the Edge of Forever--classic. Interesting that Collins couldn't stand Shatner.

The Trouble With Tribbles--funny episodes count, too.

The Tholian Web--what's not to like?

Mirror, Mirror--still, gets a point off for that ridiculous fight in sickbay when Marlena conveniently left alt-Sulu alive.

Charlie X--ending haunted me for a long time

The Naked Time--you've got to hear me!

Obsession--I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds this underrated. Excellent work for Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelly

Amok Time--no best episode list is complete without it

Galileo Seven--Spock's emotional outburst

And....the infamous bottom ten list. TOS produced some spectacular stinkers.

And The Children Shall Lead(egregiously bad), The Alternative Factor, The Way to Eden,(I wonder if Charles Napier kept that on his resumé) The Mark of Gideon, For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky, The Gamesters of Triskelion, (the tinfoil bra and panty set alone puts it on the list) Dagger of the Mind (I don't care if she was Norman Schartzkopf's first cousin, that damn dress was too short), The Squire of Gothos, The Conscience of the King (could have been great but that performance from the chick was soooooooo bad) and....no worst list is complete without it.....Spock's Brain. :p
 
Were I stranded on a desert island, I'd want
Devil
Doomsday
Beauty
Armageddon
Amok (It would console me about wanting.)
Cage
Spectre
Eden
Conscience
Errand

Eps I seriously might never watch again:
Survives
Mudd's
I Mudd
Action
Immunity
Catspaw

That's all.
 
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As an aside, The Empath in the third season is a headscratcher to me. It was Robert Justman, Roddenberry's right hand man, who recommended that the studio accept it first and I guess Fred Freiberger accepted his recommendation. I know that Jamahl Epsicokhan--at his popular web site--assigns this episode 3.5 stars out of 4 stars--while "Randy's Ratings" gives it 91% but many fans slam it. To me, its very hard to take--to see Kirk and McCoy being tortured so that Gem can prove the worth of her species in order to persuade the aliens to save her people from destruction.

It was obviously made on a shoestring budget--as Justman knew--but I regard it as a tortuous episode to watch even though I do "get" what the script writer (Joyce Muskat) was trying to convey--something many season 3 scripts failed at. Well, I hope other BBS members have their list of top 14 or bottom 12 TOS episodes. I'll continue puzzling over the Empath. Cheers.
 
My top 15....

The City on the Edge of Forever, Space Seed, The Trouble with Tribbles, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, Amok Time, The Immunity Syndrome, Balance of Terror, The Way to Eden, The Lights of Zetar, Patterns of Force, Tomorrow is Yesterday, All Our Yesterdays and The Deadly Years.

Bottom 14...

Return to Tomorrow, Wolf in the Fold, Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, That Which Survives, The Mark of Gideon, Miri, Catspaw, Charlie X, The Squire of Gothos, The Gamesters of Triskelion, Wink of an Eye, Turnabout Intruder, Plato's Stepchildren and And the Children Shall Lead
 
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