Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of “what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek,” the suggestions are pretty predictable - your “best” episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak.
I like to take a different approach, trying to find episodes that I feel are most representative of the series - the “average” Star Trek episode. If you show someone the “best,” there’s nowhere to go but down, and it can set someone up for disappointment.
In the case of Star Trek, I actually find this pretty difficult, and I don’t think I’ve come up with any that I feel are really good answers, so I’m taking it to the crowd: what are the most representative episodes of Star Trek.
To me, these are the boxes that probably need to be ticked:
- Enjoyable (obviously).
- A conventional structure that doesn’t deviate from the norm too much - this is a flexible concept, but I think it excludes things like “Darmok,” or “Tapestry,” or “In the Pale Moonlight,” which are not really conventional.
- Any series is fair game.
What do you think? What are some “normal” Star Trek episodes that would serve as good representation of what the franchise usually is?
My first thought whenever the topic of what episode a person should to introduce Trek to someone comes up is “The Measure of a Man”. Though perhaps a courtroom drama, while certainly something Trek dabbles with on multiple occasions, is not typical enough to fall under the umbrella of conventional.
Maybe something like “Children of the Comet” from season one of SNW. There’s a strange mystery that’s going to spell disaster for a pre-warp civilization, an alien of the week antagonist whom the Enterprise crew needs to figure out how to deal with without getting into a fight, and everything’s neatly wrapped up by the end. The biggest mark against it would be the subplot where Pike’s dealing with the knowledge that he’s going to end up in a beep chair.
I think VOY - Counterpoint might fit the bill.
Reasons:
- It’s got a double double-cross plot with pretty high stakes.
- It’s traditional in the “alien of the week” format.
- Janeway and Inspector Kashyk have excellent chemistry
- Hefty abuse of the pattern buffer
- Basically a self-contained episode that’s largely confined to the ship
Oh wow, that’s probably my favorite VOY episode, it’s really great without being gimmicky - good pick!
Another good VOY episode might be “The Void” - a nice little diplomatic episode with a dash of action.
Yeah, same. I felt bad recommending it as “average” episode, but it checks all the other boxes. Still, it’s a fun, easy episode to just drop into without needing any background info besides “They’re on a long journey home, and then this happens”.
“The Void” is definitely a solid choice, too. Teamwork and Federation principles save the day, a little action, and a first contact.
I think we need to move past the idea that “average” equates to “bad” - by definition, most episodes are going to be pretty average, and that’s okay!
In this list of suggestions, I wanted to showcase episodes that try to give a good overview of the cast and what they do and the feel of the series they are in. Note that these are what I feel are representative and relatively newbie-friendly, not necessarily the best episodes or even my favourites. So in that context, here are my picks and why:
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TOS: “The Doomsday Machine” - it showcases the Enterprise encountering an alien menace, how the crew and ship works together to defeat it, the strength of the relationship between the central trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy and it’s a great, exciting story to boot, with one of the strongest guest stars they ever had.
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TAS: “Beyond the Farthest Star” - this is one which I felt they could have done for TOS if not for the budget. It feels the closest to a live-action TOS episode.
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TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds” - especially the remastered HD movie cut. There really is no substitute for introducing people to TNG. This is the show firing on all thrusters: suspenseful, thrilling, and truly epic. It’s a cracking good story, pretty self-contained, moves at a steady pace, it has great characterisation and action, and if effective, it should lead to a lot of questions about the broader universe - the Borg, Guinan, Data - you can use as a means to lead newbies to more episodes.
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DS9: “Civil Defence” - this may seem like an odd choice, being a bottle show, but DS9 was always a bit of a bottle show. I like this because it’s strong on character and shows off the relationships between the characters in a crisis situation, and it brings in both Garak and Dukat, whose interactions are always a delight.
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VOY: “The Equinox” - another two-parter, but this shows off the difference between a principled and unprincipled captain and crew, a glimpse into how Janeway and Voyager could have succumbed to the dark side. (very close runner up: “Timeless”, just for an example of how VOY loved to muck with time travel and alternate timelines)
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ENT: “Dead Stop” - a strange space station, Mayweather actually gets something to do (he gets killed), the need for the NX-01 to get repairs in unexplored space, and a genuine horror mystery to solve.
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DIS: “Stormy Weather” - an episode so Star Trek it couldn’t possibly be more unless it put on pointy ears and attended a convention wearing a I GROK SPOCK t-shirt. It’s sciencey, it’s hopeful, it’s philosophical, it has kisses to continuity and even has everyone in the ensemble have a moment. And apart from that it is paced well, suspenseful and thoughtfully written. Well done all around. Honorable mention: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”.
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LD: “wej Duj”- which I would argue is the finest Star Trek episode of the last few years and one of the best ever Star Trek episodes ever for the way it portrays the lower decks of Klingons, Vulcans, Federation and even Pakleds and… well, wait till the end credits. It also introduces fan favorite T’Lyn to the audience.
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SNW: “Memento Mori” - there’s a lot to like about the episode - the submarine warfare conceit in Star Trek space battles has always been a signature so it’s nice to see it crop up again, and you don’t even mind that the correspondence is so blatant because it’s so well executed and the keeps the tension up pretty much throughout the episode.
I’m skipping PIC because that’s not really a show for fresh eyes.
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Voyager: One Small Step
It’s one of my top ten favourites, but it’s also a very typical “one off” story.
I wanna say “the corbomite maneuver” from TOS. I think it’s one of the best episodes of all, but most people don’t so i think it’s okay from the its all downhill perspective. It has everything: Kirk mentoring, an extremely powerful alien of the week, solving problems without fighting, but still tense situations. Such a great and representative episode.
From TNG maybe First Contact. Good intro episode as you get intro to the federation through the eyes of an alien of the week. The alien-chasing woman may be not a good thing to show depending on the person you’re showing it to, though.
For DS9, in the hands of the prophets. Doesn’t require much backstory unlike a lot of DS9, great ep, classic ethical debate/social commentary, and the majesty that is Vedek Winn.
For Voyager maybe distant origin. Great ep, doesn’t need much backstory, also great commentary on society
Another bonus of showing them “Corbomite” first is that they won’t be wondering what the hell the deal is with that freaky face thing at the end of the closing credits when watching other episodes.
Just don’t show them “Sub Rosa”, there’s no nudity at all.
Sometimes I think Star Trek did Sub Rosa just to prove they didn’t need to include their usual copius amounts of nudity in order to create something extremely erotic.
It’s like the story about how Hitchcock didn’t give “The Birds” a soundtrack after someone said his movies were only scary because of the music.
