Top 15 Favorite Star Trek Episodes - A Quick Look At
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- čas přidán 2. 07. 2024
- "A Quick Look At..." is a side series where Linkara does a quick review or list relating to movies or TV shows, in particular horror-themed media. In this episode, in honor of the 50th anniversary, he looks at his 15 favorite Star Trek episodes from across the franchise!
atopthefourthwall.com
Originally uploaded January 19th, 2016. - Komedie
Gul Dukat is an incredible villain at so many different points, but my personal favorite is on the DS9 episode where an old security protocol goes off and the base is going to self-destruct as a 'safety measure' to dissuade a Bejaoran uprising. Dukat arrives to shut off the self-destruct, taunts Kira by forcing her to consider surrendering the station to him, and then tries to leave...and is prevented by his own system as the automated computer accuses him attempting to abandon his post during a time of crisis. The expression on the actor's face, even through all the makeup, is just flawless.
I'm surprised "The Measure of a Man" wasn't on here. It's a Season 2 episodes, but the entire concept and the trial scenes are amazing, especially Picard's closing arguments.
Linkara: "You'll notice there aren't many episodes from Enterprise or Voyager on here."
*Proceeds to spend 3 of the next 5 spots talking about Enterprise.*
+Duke Spubber Yeah, hadn't realized there would be 3 Enterprises on this, but notice only one Voyager?
+Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall But this is suprising because I belived Enterprise was most hated series of all. But it is good to know when one bad series can do something jawdropping good. It is like finding between rubbersuit monsters one little girl in tiny labcoat who is just dreaming about playing in park...
+General Jimmies I've seen the fauxmentary and really liked it and felt that it captured the spirit of Trek better than the Abrams movies. With that said I can understand why Paramount and CBS are suing over Axanar as it sets a dangerous legal precedent if they allowed their intellectual property to be used for commercial gain without license or permission.
+Franciszek Rychlewicz
Generally speaking, Enterprise and Voyager are the black sheep on the series, with some people not liking DS9.
DS9 however, is disliked more for being too different from the series. Which is exactly why some people liked it, so that helps it's reputation.
Enterprise was terrible, however, for it's first two seasons. So many episodes only existed because the crew were total morons. But as things went on, and they tried to do something new and impactful, they were able to produce quality television, and it's a real loss that the show ended when it did, just when it was really turning around and making something of itself. But the first two seasons had dealt a mortal wound from which it was simply unable to recover.
Voyager, on the other hand, was bland. Once out of the first two seasons, the show is consistently and reliably okay. It rarely rises above that, but if you want a fun sci-fi adventure, Voyager was fine. This is damnable, though, because of the high quality of television that TOS, TNG and DS9 were provided. To just produce "Decent adventures episodes" is almost a greater insult than actually being bad. Enterprise failed spectacularly a lot of the time, but it at least put itself out there.
Voyager was content to be okay. To make enough money to not be cancelled, with no greater aspirations. But whereas I can watch Enterprise over and over again, just because of how enjoyably bad it is, Voyager is blandly forgettable. A series that never really tried. And that lack of ambition bothers me more than actual failure.
+Sines314 Voyager's problem, as a series, is pretty much the same problem as the 70s Battlestar Galactica had - Interesting premise, potential for very different stories than other works in its genre... And it completely ignores it for the majority of it's run (BSG's case was executive interfearance, look at the first couple of episodes, that is apparently what the producers were planning for the entirity before the network basically went "Make it more like Star Trek", Voyager's case was... Seemingly falling into a rut. One or two episodes/stories a season they'd do an episode that was basically 'how Voyager should have been throughout' - Resource scarcity is a thing for other purposes than giving Neelix a couple of cooking scenes, the crew is desperate, tensions between the crews are rife, and the like. I understand not putting Year Of Hell on the top 15, it's ending is fairly week, but... Ignore the ending, and imagine Voyager actually did that for the whole 7 years, but slower? And you've got something really good with that two parter.
I've never really been a Star Trek fan, I'm more of military sci-fi fan than exploration, but I still love watching videos like this and hearing fans talk about why they love their chosen franchise. Not to mention that Star Trek sticking around for as long as it has is definitely worthy of respect.
What about the best dialog in the entire franchise?
I think it's the conversation between Quark and Garak, about the Federation, using Root Beer as the metaphor, you get just a wide view and perspective on why, for example, the Romulans might fear The Federation.
I agree -- but only because Sisko's log entries in "In the Pale Moonlight" are monologues, not dialogues.
Or Quark's comments to Nog during The Siege of AR558, about how Humans can be as savage as Klingons when you take away their comforts.
Geert van der Plas. An interesting relationship humans and Klingons have, we get comfortable, forget to prepare for war and invite conquest. The Klingons get impatient attempt conquest while forgetting the last time we got our backs up and rose/sunk to their level.
The Root Beer conversation is a thinly veiled reference to the expansion of American Cultural influences, especially in the post war era.
Okay, so this is a weird pick, but my favorite scene from DS9 is from “Image in the Sand”, when Vic sings “All the Way” to a mourning Worf. It just...it destroys my heart every time.
I knew there was something off about the Kardashians.
I see what you did there. Clever.
I would rather watch a show about these Cardies rather than those Kardies! These Cardies have more personality than those Kardies! To quote Miles O'Brian "Bloody Kardies!" Was he talking about when they are on their monthly cycle? Happy New Years Y'all! (31 December 2018 0855 hours)
Alternatively, if you have 2 Cardassians in a room, 1 is Cardi A and the other would be Cardi B.
watch star trek every week
23:52 “She will grow up believing that her father is a traitor…but she will grow up.”
This line, and the line that precedes it, shattered my heart when I finally watched this episode.
fun fact, Star Trek online reveals what happened to his daughter
she did indeed grow up and got into a very high position within the empire, but it was simply because they knew who her father was and wanted to keep an eye on her
and she was glad they did, especially after she learned of his message to her and she never hated him and now she has a chance to make changes. his sacrifice wasn't in vain
A couple years ago, I happened upon DS9's "Duet", and was really intrigued by it. The story and performances were great, and I'm like, "now I want to check out the rest of this series".
Of course, me being me, I wanted to watch from beginning to end, so I had to wait a couple months for it to restart on H&I (though I think I missed the next time, and had to wait even longer).
TNG will always be my favorite, being my introduction to Trek (though I didn't like sitting through it as a kid because--I was a kid, I guess), but I definitely gained a lot of respect for DS9.
I love how every Trek race has a phrase that can be summed up as "don't antagonise the humans, they're insane enough to try it" like "don't push the pink skins on to thin ice".
14. I also like the moment when Riker and Worf are on board what they thought was the Enterprise's sister ship.
13. I also like the bits in Enterprise that show the origins of the United Federation of Planets, because I'm big on the making of alliances for peace and prosperity.
12. Alternate dimensions are awesome.
10. This episode is not to be confused with the movie titled Doomsday Machine.
6. Next to TNG, DS9 is one of my favorite Star Trek series, mostly because of the Dominion War.
4. This episode was awesome, and Avery Brooks was great as Captain Sisko.
2. I love seeing that not all Romulans want to go to war against the Federation in these kind of episodes.
1. I remember first seeing Picard as Locutus, and him scaring the shit out of me.
Well time to cue up the Netflix account. I've got some Star Trek to watch.
I really need to watch DS9 again. Sisko was a goddamn badass.
+Amayirot Akago For sure. My favorite Captain.
+Amayirot Akago
I just loved the whole cast and the way they interacted. Odo and Quark, Worf and Dax, Sisko and Kira, fun times.
+Amayirot Akago He is The Sisko
Being an admiral's adjutant, and later regaining his captaincy of Deep Space Nine will make you irritable...Also, Sisko being indirectly responsible for Nog losing his leg in combat, I'm sure, affected Sisko more than he let on...
"The Spectre of the Gun" (S3 E6 of The Original Series) (0:56)
"Where Silence Has Lease" (S2 E2 of The Next Generation) (2:52)
"United" (S4 E13 of Enterprise) (3:54)
"Mirror, Mirror" (S2 E4 of Original Series) (6:07)
"In a Mirror, Darkly" (S4 E18, E19 of Enterprise (7:22)
"The Doomsday Machine" (S2 E6 of Original Series) (8:51)
"The Forgotten" (S3 E20 of Enterprise) (10:13)
"Q Who" (S2 E16 of Next Generation) (11:58)
"Yesterday's Enterprise" (S3 E15 of The Next Generation) (13:45)
"Duet" (S1 E19 of Deep Space Nine) (15:14)
"Scorpion" (S3 E26, S4 E1 of Voyager) (16:28)
"In the Pale Moonlight" (S6 E19 of Deep Space Nine) (18:42)
"Waltz" (S6 E11 of Deep Space Nine) (20:17)
"The Defector" (S3 E10 of The Next Generation) (22:53)
"The Best of Both Worlds" (S3 E26, S4 E1 of Next Generation) (24:29)
In the Pale Moonlight is my favorite! "I can live with it." DS9!!!
Brilliant Episode
Sisko: "Ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?"
@Darth_ Madara Who the hell is sisko or Garek?
My favorite Star Trek episode is, "Who Mourns for Morn", on Deep Space Nine.
"5... Scorpion"
Scorpion: GET OVER HERE!
Sorry couldn't resist XP
Re: the animated series. Up in Canada, Space actually did a marathon for the entire animated series on a Sunday over the Christmas holidays. So right now, it's the only Star Trek series that I've seen in its entirety. Although I probably shouldn't have done it as a marathon. When you see all the episodes back to back, you quickly see the recycled animation, sound FX and music cues. It's early 70's Filmation, so it makes Hannah Barbera look like Studio Ghibli. But once you build up a tolerance for it, there's a few great gems in there. Particularly "Yesteryear" where Spock uses the same time portal in "City on the Edge of Forever" to travel back in time to protect his younger self on Vulcan. "More Tribbles, More Troubles", "Mudd's Passion" and "Once Upon a Planet' are sequel episodes to some of the classic TOS episodes. And "The Magicks of Megas-Tu", "The Terratin Incident", "The Slaver Weapon" and "How Sharper Than A Serpent's Tooth" are some really trippy episodes that take advantage of the fact that since the series is animated, they could go more extreme in their alien designs and planetary landscapes.
I like to see the animated series as the unofficial 4th season of TOS. Make of that what you will.
As a major Star Trek fan, this made my day. Thank you Linkara. I hope one day, we can get a new Star Trek show that is in canon with all others.
I am surprised you didn't put AR558 on the list. Quark's calling out of humanity's supposed "evolution" was great.
+Toridan Absolutely true, but then again, I think that you could easily do a TOP 50 list of great Trek episodes. :)
What I loved about DS9 in general, especially the latter half is that it deconstructs and peels away the semi-phony veneer of Roddenberry's idealized future humanity.
I agree that in a mere 400 years, humans are not likely to change their basic nature, sure they are more advanced,more knowledgeable, and *think* they are more civilized, but eps like AR558 really exposes the hypocrisy of that attitude
He did mention it, though, at 11:46
I agree and I think it was a good thing. I have talked with trekkies, though, who thought it a bad thing for that very reason. I think one of the mistakes of star trek is that it seems to treat perennial problems and the human condition as merely temporary hangups that we will get over once humanity sufficiently "advances." DS9 took those issues seriously and the series was much better for it.
Meh.
The issues that humanity faces today such as racism, nationalism, xenophobia went away with humanity becoming more unified after trying to take from each other leading to their near extinction.
They are all human.
And with the discovery of alien empires it made all old bigotry on earth(at least regarding to humans) becomes mute.
But Roddenberry still tried to show humanity was still walking a thin rope.
One episode in paticular in TNG had Picard having to fend off a MacArthy like general, and at the end the general retains all her power.
And another had a terrorist group show the hypocracy humanity wagging their finger at them when they're only in the position to do so because people like the group were willingly to do unsavory things.
TOS showcased Kirk more than once breaking the ideals of Starfleet and succumbing to plain old fashioned xenophobia.
You really made me re-think "Spectre of the Gun" and I see why you like it. You have changed my mind.
Incredible! It's like you've read my mind. I've watched and read so many lists of this nature, and whilst some have been similar to my own list of favourites, this one is identical. I very rarely post comment on such things but I felt that I just had to this time.
Astounding! Bravo!
Awesome vid. I'm gonna be rewatching a lot of these now thanks to this :)
thank you linkara. sometimes i forget how awesome that show is just because i don't see it that often. thanks for the memories!!!
Good list. Damn, this makes me want to watch these series again.
I love your list as a Trek fan, 2nd generation no less, I also love DS9 the most. I grew up on a military base and Starfleet is allot of things, but it's mainly the military branch of the federation and that was the show that felt like what a real military does and feels like. Of all the captains, including Picard, Sisko felt like an actual military officer, or at least the ones I knew. When it came to getting it done, that man got shit done as fast as possible, the best way he could, but the mission was first.
The show in allot of ways mirrors Babylon 5 (some people say ripped off out right but I disagree with production schedules and everything they'd have to have a plant in the Babylon staff for some of these episodes to line up and it would be stupid to make it noticeable anyway...I digress) my other favorite Sci Fi show off the time. They fight for position in my head for 1 and 2 DS9 and B5, but as for Star Trek series goes DS9 us my all time favorite, followed by Next Gen. Picard is a military diplomat, Sisko is a military officer. Picard is the guy fir first contact situations, treaty negotiations and the like, Sisko is the guy running the war, coordinating troop movements, leading invasions of enemy lines, hunting down criminals and deserters. Matter of fact I think you missed another great episode, the ones where Eddington betrays Sisko and Starfleet for the Maquis and where Sisko eventually hunts down Eddington. its where it shows his commitment to getting the job done, at all costs, I must stress again, LIKE A TRUE MILITARY OFFICER. They're not worried about pussy sentimentality or sensibilities, they don't really care about collateral damage so much as they get the job done. They will do completely unconscionable things to get the job done and worry about the consequences later. Not to say they don't try to minimize collateral damage, cuz they do, but it won't stop the op from moving forward.
Anyway I've rambled quite a bit so in just gonna pinch it off here. I suspect I'm right in saying this but I hope your favorite captain is Sisko along with me. I feel he doesn't get the love he deserves. The man saved the alpha quadrant for crying out loud!
Two of my favorite episodes of TNG are Time's Arrow, part 1 and 2.
"Time’s Arrow" comprises the 126th and 127th episodes overall, and 26th episode of the fifth season and first episode of the sixth season of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. A two-part episode of Star Trek: TNG, the first episode was a cliffhanger season finale for the fifth season and the second episode was the premiere for the sixth season.
Source link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%27s_Arrow_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
I'll admit it, I've never watched any star trek before, but listening to your enthusiasm for this show plus the pretty good breakdown of why they're your favorites is quite enjoyable to me :)
+Mitchell Sanchez
If it inspires you to watch the shows, I suggest starting at Season 3 for every show except The Original Series. The first two seasons of the other 4 shows are bad or mediocre, and can scare away potential fans of the show.
thank you for making this episode as spoiler free as you could.
I do love how he specifically mentions that DS9 is his favorite, but his top 2 are both TNG. It shows an interesting contrast. DS9 was partially serialized, it meant that quality, across the board, was similar throughout the run, giving it a more consistent feel, and the fact that it is a case of the creatives behind the scenes caring, and execs letting them create allowed for that baseline quality to be pretty high. But TNG? For all it has lower lows than DS9, was able to punch far, far above its weight class. Yes, it had some execs meddling, and the fact that the crew had some well knowns in it for dramatic roles, who contributed creatively, certainly helped.
For anyone curious, I agree with Lewis. DS9 is the better show in general, but TNG is the far more watchable, as you can pick a random episode and enjoy, something not all DS9 episodes could...hell the ending is basically a 9-parter in the end, meaning for most of the last season if you miss an episode, you won't know what's going on.
Really would like to hear his opinions on Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy myself...again for anyone curious, Insulting Garbage, Good ideas-Bad Execution, I Never Laughed, and actually surprisingly decent, respectively
-Discovery: Gets better every season! Problem is it starts from zero and I am tired of waiting for it to get to a point where I can call it good. The resolution of the Burn and Michael being made Captain after it has been demonstrated time and time again that she is NOT ready for the big chair was the final straw for me and I don't watch it anymore.
-Picard: It's... fine. It's carried by the familiar characters, but that's ALL it had going for it. The plot was just really MEH and raised a whole lot more questions than it answered. Season 2's trailers do not inspire confidence and I don't know if I'll be watching it.
-Lower Decks: I don't watch it. The trailers made it look bad enough, but not only am I not interested in a Star Trek comedy show, the gifs I've seen of it really just make it come across like a Star Trek shitpost made into a full series. I'm sure there's plenty of good material in there, but I do not want to wade through everything that I know I will hate to get to the good points.
-Prodigy: Haven't watched it yet, heard good things, but I admit I'm not really interested in Star Trek: Space Cases.
@@AT4W Holly Helen...was not expecting a response...uh...well, since you went detailed, and quite interesting, I suppose I'll detail my own stuff.
Discovery: I gave up early season 3. Red Angel was already a bad plot, like, a lot of one, to me. And I say this as someone who can enjoy time travel stories(Star Trek Armada from the same franchise for instance makes no sense Time Travel wise, but is just fun...also it has the most epic stand off of characters you really do not expect to see facing off).
Problem was they do so many stupid things with it, and keep forgetting Discovery's claim to fame is Teleportation Drive, so it just was bad. Then season 3 had too many moments where Mike or someone else looked down on the lower crew, and remember, these people stayed to help save HER life, not their own, as they could have just left.
So yeah, I gave up at that point.
Picard: I think it had the strongest start of any of the 4 series. Some of that was Sir Patrick himself being...well his awesome self. Some of that was the intrigue with the setup. But it squandered a lot of that, and while I'm not bothered too much by the season ender, though 50+ copies of the exact same ship is not exactly a good look in on Trek, but knowing some of the upper staff made light of fan issues does not endear me.
Lower Decks: I watched all of season 1. I did not laugh. It wanted me to laugh. But I never felt it earned anything. The animation is stilted, the characters are jerks for no reason, to each other and to those outside their group, and the one likable regular is sidelined by the end of season 1. I chose not to keep going at that point.
Prodigy: I...would not have thought of that comparison, but it is apt. That said, I for one enjoyed Space Cases, fine if you didn't, as I can easily understand why, but yeah, it appeals to me, as someone who's enjoyed a lot of shows like it. The animation is a bit...off sometimes, I think the models aren't fully articulated in the way they need to be(Bending over some of them look god awful) but it's cute, and Janeway is fantastic...even if I still think she should turn into a dragon. We all know you can do it Kathrin, with your witchy powers granted by Satan!(SFDebris and Dragon Age Reference)
All these choices, So Strong Linkara, Love your work!
Thanks for this video, i really enjoyed it. I too share your love of DS9 and distaste for Voyager and Enterprise, so it was very much up my street!
Great List! Would love to se more videos like this in the future!
Good list! Some of my own favorites (other than the ones in the video, which are all great episodes)
'Balance of Terror', "The Devil in the Dark', 'Operation--Annihilate!' (TOS)
'The Chase', 'Frame of Mind', 'Cause and Effect', 'Clues' (TNG)
'The Adversary', 'Favor the Bold/Sacrifice of Angels', 'Tears of the Prophets', 'The Siege of AR558' (DS9)
'Distant Origin', 'Timeless', 'Counterpoint' (VOY)
'Silent Enemy', 'Vox Sola', 'Future Tense', 'Twilight' (ENT)
Ah so many good episodes! DS9 is my favorite ST shows, and I must admit that I quite enjoyed Enterprise. After hearing so many bad things about it and putting off watching it, I was pleasantly surprised that there were some really good episodes in there. Connor Trinneer was definitely the best part of that show.
Though you are far kinder to VOY and ENT than I would be (not a single episode of either show would make my Top 50), I am genuinely tickled that my #1 is your #2. The Defector doesn't get enough love.
It's a good list. It points out the strongest aspects of Star Trek. I really like that you put Duet in there.
thank you for making this video Linkara!!
Your number One is what got me into TNG, and I watched it at a time there was no Part 2. I wish you had included TNG Contagion.
Balance of Terror was one of my favorites Star Trek TOS. I think they could have done more in the Next Generation with the Klingon Civil War.
I'm surprised that "The Inner Light" and "Measure of a Man" didn't make the list. Both of those are excellent episodes.
Star Trek I think will always be with us in some form or another and there are so many great episodes across the series that you could easily do a top 100 or even 200 list. All of the series have some great and powerful episodes in them.
I really like Uhura's mirror uniform. Much better than her usual.
These choices are all so great.
Good list, i seem to share many of your thoughts on enterprise and voyager, and an understanding of a bit of goofiness in TOS, and an over all love of DS9, and TNG (with of course most of seasons 1 and 2, being people figuring out who and what they are). After watching this i felt a need to atleast make a comment. Like age of Adaline and Man from Earth, i love movies that deal in long life and so personally really enjoyed TOS's Requim for Methuselah. TNG there were to i wanted to comment on (though there are of course so many), Offspring - of course the Picard speeches are priceless, but also we see a man an Admiral, who represents the state, and with outwardly little empathy in his regaurd towards sentient star fleet property. Change to a man who recalls (for me i really felt the emotion he was conveying) a visual experience that he internalizes and speaks about as he identifies with data and being a parent trying to save their child. The other TNG Episode is Drumhead, i thought about commenting on Outcast, but found myself having difficulty in expressing the complexity we view and the applications in full of our own society. (back to Drumhead), if nothing more for more Picard speeches (Aaron Satie "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, Chains us all, irrevocably.") I see so often people in outrage, calling for some form of speech to be outlawed to stop only these one things, and when you listen to supreme court judges (or read), their dissenting arguments you see how often the rely on decisions made made decades or a century ago having weight in the arguments, for or against today's rulings. And feel the weight of having to fight for protection, today. A profoundly impactful episode. DS9: i have watched In the pale moon light more then any episode it is amazing my personal #1. Though there was of course no way to put it into this video, i always like another scene from the way of the warrior "how to fill time with dialog, and when you find you have too much time, they fought to keep it in because it was so great. I am of course referring to the Root beer scene between Quark and Garak. I wish all time fillers could be this great. This is already too long, and i don't mind passing up on what i thought about great Voyager and Enterprise episodes. Hopefully you made it to the end, and have a lovely day. (sidenote, this was kind of long so i did not proof read it sorry for any errors in writing)
Great video, i've been planning on getting into Star Trek for some time and this gives me a lot of good suggestions for starting points.
Will you be doing a similar video ranking of the Star Trek movies (since there are only 13 films in the franchise)?
Only 13...
Glad to see Where Silence Has Lease on here. This list is encouraging me to get through DS9 and Voyager.
The Voyagers improved dramatically once the character 7 arrived. Even after her arrival the only compelling episodes were the ones featuring her or the Doc. I have to admit though I feel the series finale with Janeway going back to fight the queen Borg is my all time favorite episode....purely awesome stuff!
Good list, my fav is 'in the pale moonlight' and I always enjoy watching the last couple of series of DS9 every now and again. I also enjoy the last two seasons of enterprise.
I'm like Linkara in the sense I have seen every single episode with the exception of the cartoon. I was born into Star Trek as it was my dad's favorite show when he was a kid and I was born in 1990, three years after TNG started. I fucking love Star Trek, it's one of my favorite series ever with every single individual series having parts I loved. The upcoming 2017 television series has got me pretty fucking pumped and hyped and I so hope it's gonna be amazing.
Hey linkara, would you consider doing a top 10 favorite doctor who episodes?
If he does that, it would be another Top 15. Much like the Critic with top 11s, he does Top 15s.
@@kadindarklord there is logic in what he says
Top 15 Linkara cameos
My Top 15 are:
1. The City on the Edge of Forever (TOS)
2. Far Beyond the Stars (DS9)
3. The Inner Light (TNG)
4. The Measure of a Man (TNG)
5. Family (TNG)
6. It’s Only a Paper Moon (DS9)
7. The Visitor (DS9)
8. Darmok (TNG)
9. I, Borg (TNG)
10. Chain of Command (TNG)
11. Data’s Day (TNG)
12. Call to Arms/A Time to Stand/Rocks and Shoals/Behind the Lines/Favor the Bold/Sacrifice of Angels (DS9)
13. Doctor Bashir, I Presume? (DS9)
14. Waltz (DS9)
15. The Survivors (TNG)
Very good list Linkara! I have been thinking about getting into Star Trek for a while but I have been too busy trying to catch up on Doctor Who. I'll definitely keep these episodes in mind once I start watching. Have you ever thought of doing a top 15 for Doctor Who also?
I cannot say I watched much of the series, as I primarily grew up with TNG. Buuuuuuut, I like
-The Best of Both Worlds
-The Inner Light
-Family
-Deja Q (My favourite Q episode)
-A fistful of Datas
Oh yeah! Linkara's favourite series is DS9. Awesome.
Duet is fantastic, and is what sold me on DS9
I liked how the creators of the fan series, Star Trek Phase 2/The New Adventures, offered up a technical sequel to Doomsday Machine, & the ep with the Guardian of Forever. IMHO, our fellow geeks payed huge homage to the Trek mythose.
Deep Space Nine is also my favorite series and I got chills when you said "In the Pale Moonlight". However if you asked me what my favorite Star Trek episode is I would also have to say a Next Generation episode, "All Good Things".
+batlantern
I'm surprised it didn't make the list. However, to be honest, the episode has some rather strong plotholes in the anomaly and it's solution. While it's forgivable, because the episode is primarily a character a piece, it is something that can be held against the episode.
Still, I would rank it as one of the best series finales of all time. It celebrates the show, it's past, where it might have gone. It has our crew make the final sacrifice, while still having them go onto more adventures.
It ties up the show from it's first episode, meaning that every episode, every lesson, was all part of the test. That the bravery, inginuity and principles of our characters have been found to meet the standards of Q. The immortal god tested our characters not by some silly incident that was over in 40 minutes, but through 7 years of dealing with the horrific and the wonderful. And he felt that, for all their faults, they had passed the test.
It's a superb episode, and it does everything a series finale should do. Even things I didn't think series finales were capable of.
Favorite Original episode is "Doomsday Machine". Might not be best, but is my fave for many different reasons. Also "City On The Edge Of Forever" of course. As is "Alien", "Mirror, Mirror", "Miri", "Shore Leave", and "Tribbles" ! ... ALL of them ! Original was best.
Fave from TNG is indeed "Yesterday's Enterprise". Never watched much TNG.
I can do a balanced top ten list where TOS and TNG are concerned, but that whole list gets overtaken when I try to incorporate the high points of DS9. I think It was far and away the best ST series. :)
Drumhead is usually my go to favorite episode that maybe isn't as obvious.
+PeterWDawson Man, I was going to comment about this one too!
Maybe people consider it a bit too much of moralizing but it, and The Measure of a Man are both FANTASTIC.
I disagree, it's a very important one since it's something we see time and again. Timeless episode, got the message just right.
PeterWDawson
No arguments from me!
+PeterWDawson I absolutely ADORE the Drumhead. It's a great oneoff episode, and it's kind of a personal moment for me. The first memory I have of my dad is watching that episode with him off of a recorded VHS. The rest of the tape had a 25th anniversary of Superman documentary!
Was looking for an episode like this! Hooray trek!
A truly well rounded list that has a bit of all 5 series being represented here. I am curious if Captain Sisko was your favorite Star Trek captain since DS9 was your favorite series.
My favorite episode is “In the Pale moon Light”. I love the moral ambiguity. I also like the episode “The City on the Edge of Forever”, one of the best single episode romances ever in the series.
The thing I love most about The Defector episode is how we get to see Picard as a chess master
He knew not to trust going into the neutral zone without some kind of saftey net, so he goes to Gowron and masterfully leverages him to get a favor.
What was the favor? well when Picard and the Enterprise find out that there was a trap set up by the Romulans near the Neutral Zone Picard pulls out his ace and reveals that the favor he asked was the use of 2 cloaked Bird of Prey who decloak behind General Tamok's ship taking him by surprise and Picard being dead serious about going into battle with him.
thanks to this maneuver Picard one the battle without even needing to fight, though the ending of the episode is still heartbreaking, even if Star Trek Online fans know what became of the Admiral's daughter and how she took his defection
@Groovy Guru ACK! Just FYI I accidentally removed your comment, thinking I was clicking on something else. Sorry!
That episode of the silence on TNG remembered me from that episode from TOS when the original enterprise 1701 goes into a void and they begin to die slowly
I was wondering since you put a few of the later episodes of Enterprise on this list, were you looking forward at all to what they were planning for seasons five and six with the start of the Romulan-Earth war and a refit for Enterprise?
Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall I have an honorable mention for ya: Peak Performance from TNG. After the enterprise crew meet the borg, they have a simulation training battle. You know what I mean?
Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall Here is another Star Trek inconsistency. In the episode I Borg where a Borg is named Hugh by Data, and Geordi, Hugh is left with the experience of having functioned as an individual. It was decided that this experience would be the a better way to unravel the Borg than any computer virus, biological pathogen, or for that matter any other weapon. However, any time the Borg assimilate anyone the victims already have lived their lives up to that point as individuals meaning that exposure to concepts of individuality, is anything but new to the Borg by the time Hugh became, well...Hugh. It also stands to reason that Hugh is not the first Borg to be cut off from the collective, and then reintegrated.
Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall How can you have a 15 best of list like this w/o "City on Edge" or "Inner Light"?
I'm so glad that he featured the "Spectre of the Gun" episode! That was included on my own "Top 10" Trek eps. list as well. I think that episode gets an unfair amount of hate, when it's actually really clever, as Linkara pointed out here.
Really? Really?
The Inner Light?
Darmok?
Measure of a Man?
In the Pale Moonlight is a good one though. It's one of my favorites, too.
The stories are deeper, and the quality of DS9 is better overall, but TNG has more brilliant moments. The Perfect Mate is very good, also. Lessons is a beautiful episode, too.
Apolocalype Rising, DS9: "Brag all you want, but don't get between me, and the blood wine!" I love that line!
Mirab, his sails unfurled.
No Darmok?
Shaka, when the walls fell.
I understand that this is your list and it won't have some episodes that most trek fans consider are the best. But I am genuinely surprised by the absence of "The City on the Edge of Forever." I was under the impression that was one of the universally beloved episodes of Star Trek on general.
+Colin VandenBerg It is, but I'm just kind of "meh" on it.
+Colin VandenBerg
I found Edith so goddamn preachy and obnoxiously moralizing that I couldn't wait for her to get hit by that car.
The idea of the episode is great. That the peacemaker can inadvertly bring destruction, and that sacrifices must be made of decent people to save the world. It's just that the episode failed so hard at making me like her, that I was just unable to feel bad about her dying.
When it comes to the innocent being sacrificed for the greater good, I'll take Enterprises "Damage" over "City on the Edge of Forever" any day.
I recognize how widely praised that Ep is, but it doesn't really resonate with me and I find kind of overhyped
+Eamonn Deane Space Seed is honestly an OK, not a great ep, it's been retroactively considered great because of Wrath of Khan
It works better (for me that is) if you view things from Kirk's perspective, not because we give a darn about Edith, but because we are saddened by Kirk doing the right thing at the cost of his happiness and desire to preserve all life. Kirk grew up in a future where crime and murder have been abolished, he was taught to always do good, and here he is faced with a decision to allow a preventable death so the world could achieve peace, or to let her live because of some selfish notion of love and happiness and doom the world. The choice he makes is one that will haunt him, does he think of himself as a murderer now despite knowing he's saved the universe from everlasting evil?
After doing more research and actually getting properly into star trek thanks to a paramount plus subscription, I have amended my opinion from the comment I made a year ago: TNG is indeed one of the greats
and also from what I can tell Enterprise and Voyager can thank Rick Berman being The Worst for how they turned out. Berman particularly had a wild hair up his ass about Captains ALWAYS having to be right all the time, and that authority should NEVER be questioned
I *love* Voyager! There, I've said it. Should I seek therapy?
I agree, I agree!!
Voyager was the best.
Voyager was so much better than DS9. DS9 was boldly going nowhere except playing baseball for some reason.
Yes.
me too, me too
I wish that there had been a singular villain in the original series. You get an equal captain in Balance of Terror but then never again except maybe Kahn in Space Seed. And as far as enemies go there hasn't been a more terrifying foe than the Borg BUT with Gul Dukat you get a fantastic villain with depth and intelligence. Good list dude.
How can you not includes "Inner Light" which is easy one of the top 5 episodes ever.
Great list. There's a lot of episodes on there that I'm not familiar with because I'm not as well versed as you are so I'll definitely be checking those out. There's certainly a lot of truly excellent episodes in the franchise, but I would have liked to seen "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "Chain of Command" make the list because they both take the chance of making the main hero vulnerable and, in a way, have him actually lose in the end despite the technical victory in the plot. They're similar to "In the Pale Moonlight" in that respect; disguising losses as victories and making the indestructible destructible.
+nightviper1115
"have him actually lose in the end despite the technical victory in the plot"
Huh, I never thought of it that way, but you're completely right.
I did love "The Augments" three part story arc of Enterprise as well. I mean it set the ground work of Data's Creator's ancestor. It makes mention of the Euginics. Let alone a better Star Trek 2 reference that JJ wished he could of done!
really love your list maybe a top ten for the movies at some point?
A very enjoyable list. My personal favorite series is also DS9, though I tend to be a little more forgiving towards Voyager. It's very hard for me to pick a favorite episode, though. If you had to twist my arm, it would "Far Beyond the Stars." But my favorite things the series did was flesh out the Ferengi and make the character of Lwaxana Troi tolerable. I really enjoyed how Odo played off of her. Also, all of the fan service. Like, proper fan service, not cheesecake. There's a lot of respect for the franchise in that series.
I would make the point my favourite Episode or one of the top 5 by far is "Far Beyond the Stars" I love the creativity of the episode in the setting, the drama of Sisko in the past and ambitious ideas of the character he plays in that story.
In the Pale Moonlight is the best episode in all of Star Trek, IMO with Waltz not far behind at all. So fantastic.
I'd also give honorable mention to The Siege of AR-558, Civil Defence, and Voyager's Counterpoint.
I'm surprised you didn't put more DS9 episodes on here. I tried making a Top 12 list for my CZcams channel and found it almost impossible to keep DS9 from dominating.
3 dimensional chess makes no sense and the board and pieces look stupid.
But hey, Duet. That's my favorite, at least in DS9. Shivers up the spine at all of Moritzas scenes.
I remember the music being great in many early episodes of TNG, but then becoming rather unremarkable later on. I've heard the producers fired the composer after Roddenberry left, but is that all there was too it?
+Valter Östberg Basically, Rick Berman felt that Ron Jones' stuff was "too distracting" or the like, taking attention away from the actors or something like that. This is in spite of the fact that he won an award for that music.
Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall Rick Berman being the guy who I hear tell is infamous for bad decisions and unprofitable ideas, yes?
+Valter Östberg Watch SF debris and you will see why.
+Valter Östberg its not that sense less if you read the rules
In a weird way, my favorite episodes of all time were the final episodes of TNG. When the 3 Enterprise ships were crossing over, and Q was showing Picard what may happen.
Must have been hard not filling the list with nothing but DS9 with a few TNG here and there. DS9 had so many amazing episodes and so many just fun ones.
Some of my favorite Voyager episodes. In no order are. blood fever. Unimatrix , ex post facto, the disease, the chute, therecare so many others .
Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy from Voyager is one of my favorites. Never have I laughed so hard in a Trek episode.
Oh, and I know it sounds cliché but MY favorite episode of Star Trek, "The City on the Edge of Forever"!
I wish you would do another round of this.
One of my fave episodes is “Deja Q” from TNG. It was the episode that got me interested in Star Trek in the first place. And it quickly made Q my favorite character.
I think this video got me into stat trek eventually, even though I didn't start watching until years later
If Star Trek Continues counts (it's in my head canon) then "Lolani" and "Fairest of Them All" definitely make my Top 15.
I like "Spectre of the Gun" too. Mainly because I like the idea of them doing a western episode.
Yay! I'm glad you like "Mirror, Mirror" and "In a Mirror, Darkly". I love it when we visit the Mirror Universe. That's why I want to see more of DS9 as they did more episodes involving the Mirror Universe than the other Star Trek shows.
I prefer the remastered edition of "The Doomsday Machine" as it shows the Enterprise really kicking ass while attacking the planet killer. Plus the Constellation looks more heavily damaged than it did in the original version. Although I do think the planet killer in the original looks just as impressive as the remastered though.
"Q Who" totally as it features another appearance from Q and introduces the Borg. It was definitely where TNG started to get better.
I like "Yesterday's Enterprise" as it was the only time we got to actually see the Enterprise-C. Up until this episode, the Enterprise-B and the Enterprise-C were the only Federation starships that had not appeared on screen yet as the Enterprise-D was the current Enterprise at the time.
I agree that the "Scorpion" 2-parter is one of the better episodes of VOY. I am actually quite surprised that VOY is considered one of the weaker Star Trek shows as it actually did a lot more Borg episodes than TNG did.
I recently saw "Waltz" and thought what superb acting came from Avery Brooks and Marc Alaimo. It was just an interesting concept to have two adversaries trapped alone together on a planet and Duket is surprisingly helping an injured Sisko. And then later, Duket starts breaking down opens up to the evil things he did on Bajor.
Oh yes, "The Best of Both Worlds". I once had this 2-parter on VHS, where both parts were edited together into a feature-length episode. Apart from the first few seconds of Part II being edited out, "The Best of Both Worlds" is actually pretty awesome in a feature-length presentation. But of course, I think I prefer the 2-part presentation because of that chilling cliffhanger. "Mr. Worf, FIRE!" And then cue the dramatic music scoring as "To Be Continued..." appears on screen.
Personally I think that Voyager used the borg too much, I liked 7 of 9 and the scorpion story was interesting but part of what made the borg so scary was we knew so little about them and anytime the TNG era federation faced them the victories came at a high price. Voyager had them around so much they felt like just another enemy power to face.
Nice to see so many 'Enterprise' episodes on your list.
Oh, also nice to see 'Duet' make someone's list. Tremendous episode!
A wonderful episode... but it destroyed the character of Dukat. He went from a masterfully written, deep and engrossing, despicable and empathetic archvillian into a moustache twirling one dimensional cartoon from then on.
For that reason Duet is both one of my favorite episodes, and one of my most hated. It almost feels like some higher up told the writers to make everything black and white for the finale. Society would crumble were a villain depicted as a real person...
Well done!
Though we usually think of the holodeck as a new concept on TNG, I swear there was an episode on the original series that featured the same concept, though somewhat simplistic in comparison. But I remember McCoy mentioning something about being in a field with trees and blue skies and maybe even entering some kind of programming prior to them walking into a room. Not on a starship, not aliens trickery, maybe it was on a starbase? I'll look for it, but if you remember this, please let me know. Thanks. Awesome choices by the way.
Best list ever. This is how I feel about Star Trek.
I rank the Star Trek series as, #1 The Next Generation, #2 Voyager, #3 Deep Space 9, and tied for #4 The Original Series & Enterprise.
Nothing personal, but to leave out "The Inner Light! from TNG is criminal. One of the finest pieces of drama ever written.
Space Seed, the Tribbles episode, the episode with Trelane, and Heart of Glory are my favorite Star trek episodes
Spectre of the Gun was the first Star Trek VHS episode I ever owned! It was paired with Plato's Stepchildren, I think?
Very good List you missed some of mine like "Measure of A Man" and "Tapestry" but excellent list Linkara .
You need to remember, these are Linkara's personal favorites. He put the episodes that he enjoyed the most, not the ones that are the most popular.
Carlisle the Cinephile I know I don't berate him for it. We have different taste but I generally did like his list for the most part.
It's interesting to think of episodes that aren't usually called out as all-time classics, but that I personally thought were great. A few:
- TOS's "A Taste of Armageddon". Maybe the best "messed-up society of the week" episode, about a civilization that has accommodated itself to endless war by playing it all as a computer game and making the designated dead kill themselves in disintegration chambers. When his ship is declared destroyed with all hands, Kirk isn't having any of that, Prime Directive be damned. For a while this was the episode that always just happened to be on when I was watching Star Trek, so I got pretty familiar with it, but it didn't breed contempt. Archetypical Kirk speech at the end.
- TOS's "A Piece of the Action". Oh, hell, I know, I know, but of all of the intentionally wacky Star Trek episodes, this is the one I think is actually funny. Get a load of those fancy heaters!
- TNG's "Cause And Effect". Before "Groundhog Day", Star Trek: TNG does its own version of the already familiar time-loop story, and executes it very well. Saying more would be too spoilery.
- TNG's "Thine Own Self". This was a surprisingly good episode in Season 7, which was mostly clunkers apart from the nice series finale. Data is stranded on a planet with a low-tech society, with his memory on the blink and a box of radioactive material that is making the natives sick. He has to figure out what's going on with the resources he has on hand. The ending is kind of a cheat, because it's the only way to not have it be incredibly sad, but up to that point this is a really solid story.
The first two seasons of every next generation series are pretty bad... So it's not really suprising that the first two seasons of Enterprise were too. It really sucks it was cancelled just as it was getting good... Honestly, fuck Paramount... Then they give to the rights to JJ Abrams... Grrr.
Look at it this way. If it wasn't for JJ Abrams then the Star Trek series would pretty much be dead since "These Are the Voyages" was a finale that was so bad, it killed the Star Trek franchise for a couple of years.
I have always felt that J.J. Abrams had a hand at not learning the content, and making a sci fi adventure action movie, which more people like wars fans woudl like, the second movie he did was mainly just a reboot of a previous movie in the franchise, kind of like what he did with star wars. I don't mind the long pauses between t.v. shows in star trek, as long as the content is good. and i will second you on another comment, Fuck Paramount
MrKillerbunny1981 Indeed. Fuck Paramount indeed since they've been trigger happy ever since the bs with the fan film.
I've just recently finished second season and started the third one.
While I agree that 1st season of TNG is pretty bad overally, I think that 2nd season improved A LOT.
The beard helps
This is a great list of episodes. Really I can only offer some honorable mentions that I wish had made the list.
The early episodes of TNG were pretty bad, but there were some good ones that did stand out. One of the few I'll watch consistently is "The Arsenal of Freedom". There's a build-up of the relationship between Picard and Doctor Crusher, genuine tension as the ship comes under attack from an automated weapons system, and they still manage to believably work in some humor by having Riker quote a Shirley Temple song. Really though, if you want GOOD TNG episodes, wait until the uniforms change to remove the strip of color (either red, yellow or blue) around the collar of the uniforms.
Most of the TNG episodes involving the Cardassians are good too. "The Wounded" is probably one of the better stories of all the series when dealing with themes of hatred and revenge. Unlike DS9's "For the Uniform", Captain Maxwell's hatred of the Cardassains has had sufficient time to solidify and become his driving force. I always found Sisko's hatred of Eddington to be unbelievable given the level of development of their relationship. We barely see them interact, but Eddington becomes Moby Dick to Sisko's Captain Ahab? If you want a better story involving personal grudges being brought to a head, try Star Trek First Contact. Picard's interactions with Lily Sloane explore this dynamic better.
Then there's the "Chain of Command" two part episode which I think has one of Patrick Stewart's best performances as Picard.
I really didn't have much interest in DS9 given the additional religious aspects and the addition of Section 31. I understand the need for an organization like Section 31, but the fact that it has no one to answer to at all didn't sit right with me. Who decides what and who are threats to the Federation? Who decides what methods are used and how much collateral damage is permissible?
Also, given movies like "The Undiscovered Country" is Section 31 really necessary? It seems to me that, if they wanted to do a "Federation officers do bad things" storyline, they could do that without Section 31. For example, would removing Section 31 from "Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" really affect the plot in a meaningful way?
Voyager was probably the worst of the series, becoming far too Borg focused as it went on. "Living Witness" is a stellar episode though (no pun intended).
Enterprise had potential, but I think it squandered it and threw in the Xindi conflict as a way to get interest back. Really the only episodes i can recommend are either at the very beginning or the very end. The middle had Archer forcibly behaving like Captain Ahab and T'Pol behaving like a whinny teenager, and Trip wasn't much better. I really think the writers of Star Trek borrowed from Herman Melville and Victor Hugo too much, especially since Moby Dick and Les Miserables are very similar in their explorations of revenge. They really should have focused on the Human/Vulcan/Andorian dynamic, like with "The Andorian Incident" and "Shadows of P'Jem" (ignoring the slapstick during the scene where Archer and T'Pol are tied up).
This comment turned out far longer than I intended, but there are the honorable mentions I would add to the Linkara's list.