Top 5 List: Top 5 Star Trek Episodes
We here at The Weekly Geek don't hide our nerdery. We are all unabashed Star Trek fans (you can't a-bash us!) and we aren't ashamed. We've watched every episode from every series, seen every movie, and all had childhood crushes on various characters (Riker, I'm looking at you). Compiled from a list of all of the episodes from every Trek series, here is The Weekly Geek's Top 5 Star Trek Episodes of All Time. Fire up your Netflix queue if you haven't seen these!
You know what to do. Hit the jump and all that.
Frodo's List:
5. "Message in a Bottle" (Voyager) - Andy Dick and Robert Picardo play holographic doctors fighting aliens side by side. Hilarity ensues. I especially enjoy the part when Andy Dick tries to get into the Jeffries Tube backwards. Say what you will about the man, he is comedy gold. This episode also showed what people in the alpha quadrant were up to for the very first time in the Voyager series. New uniforms and new technology. Neat!
4. "Rejoined" (Deep Space Nine) - You know the episode where Dax kisses another lady? Aww yeah. I have nothing more to say about this episode besides that it is AWESOME. I've had a crush on Terry Ferrell since DS9 started and this episode just sent it over the edge.
3. Star Trek: Nemesis (The Movie) - Yeah so it's not an episode of one of the series, but it may as well have been. While it wasn't the best Star Trek movie of all time, I've always said it's like watching a really good episode. Shinzon's crazy color-changing jacket alone makes this movie worth it.
2. "The Visitor" (Deep Space Nine) - Sisko is trapped in time and Jake is on a life-long search to find him. He blinks in and out and each time Jake loses his father over and over and over again. Quite possibly the only Star Trek episode that made me cry. Avery Brooks is a freaking amazing actor. DS9 is by far my favorite of all the Star Trek series, and it's partly because of him.
1. "Best of Both Worlds" (The Next Generation) - This was when TNG really started to pick up. The introduction of the Borg was one thing, but the creation of Locutus was so epic and neat, it set the standard for all other episodes to follow.
Caspian's List:
5."This Side of Paradise" (The Original Series) – Spock gets some action for a change (instead of Kirk) and this episode was later referenced on Futurama in Fry’s conversation with Nimoy’s head.
4. "Second Skin" (Deep Space Nine) – I was never a huge DS9 fan. I consider it the soap opera of Star Treks. There weren’t enough mindless photon torpedo battles and explosions for me, but anyway… Kira gets turned into an ugly Cardassian in this episode and still looks kinda hot. Whaddya know?
3. "Scorpion: Part 2" (Voyager) – Let's face it, Voyager was never that great. It took them until the first episode of the 4th season to develop any intrigue really. Seven of Nine makes her debut in this episode and consequently enters the nightly dreams of every convention-going Star Trek Fanboy.
2. "Brothers" (The Next Generation) – I could really pick all TNG episodes for this top 5, but I tried to use some restraint. I was always a huge Brent Spiner fan, and this was a Data-heavy episode. In fact, he played 3 separate characters in one scene here. He meets his maker and his evil brother Lore, who shows up in later episodes commanding a Borg fleet.
1. "Cause and Effect" (The Next Generation) – Every major series that’s worth a damn has its Groundhog Day episode, and TNG did theirs particularly well. Kelsey Grammer makes a late cameo in it too.
The Geek's List:
Preface to the list:
I haven't seen any TOS in quite a while, so it's not gonna get quite as much love here since I don't remember a lot of it.
I enjoy all Trek, but the truth is I know that Voyager and Enterprise just were nowhere near the quality of the other shows, so they won't be showing up on my list at all.
Also, it's hard to pick some DS9 episodes because of the whole Dominion Arc. There was a lot of awesome shit that went down in that story, so just suffice to say that I loved the Dominion stuff a whole damn bunch.
5: TNG - Sarek
With a couple seasons under their belt, the TNG cast were really starting to get into their characters and flesh them out. In this episode, Spock's dad, Sarek, visits the Enterprise to handle some diplomatic stuff. Well, it turns out he's going out of his Vulcan mind and is losing control of his emotions. With Vulcans being all telepathic and such, this is adversely affecting the crew. Picard confronts Sarek about it and then offers to be a vessel for Sarek's emotions so he can negotiate the treaty unhindered. That's where it really gets good. We are treated to a very intense scene of Picard sitting in his room basically freaking out with powerful emotions, giving Patrick Stewart a chance to really show us his acting chops.
4: TOS - City on the Edge of Forever
In the first season of original Star Trek, Bones ODs, wanders through a sentient time portal, and changes history, erasing the Enterprise. Luckily, Spock and Kirk happen to be by the portal so they don't get erased from history. The jump back in time to find McCoy and stop him from fucking things up. Well, it's not as easy as all that because Kirk (don't you know it) falls in love with the woman that was supposed to die but McCoy saved, thus screwing with the timeline. This episode is great because it is a prime example of Trek at its best. It still has the sci-fi element to it, but proves that it's more than just "omg doodz in space fighting aliens, lol". What made Trek so great was its representation of the human condition, though it sometimes did so with robots and lizard men.
3: TNG - Darmok
So this episode starts out making us think that Picard is getting his own version of Kirk Vs. Lizardman. (Yes, I know it's really a Gorn.) Well we get thrown for a loop as it turns out that Picard is basically being tested by the other species in a crazy round of first contact that involves fighting a freaky space monster together and learning an alien dialect that exlusively uses metaphors to communicate. This is one of the episodes that shows why Picard is easily a better captain than Kirk. (GASP!) Dude figures out the wacky language, fights the monster despite being an old Frenchy guy, and brokers peace with the new race.
2: DS9 - Trials and Tribble-ations
Like I said up in the preface, there's so much awesome going on over giant story-arcs in DS9, it's hard to pick one of those for a list like this, so I'm picking the one that is just straight up fun. The whole main crew of DS9 gets sucked back in time chasing down a criminal (Klingon altered to look human) who is plotting to assassinate good ol' James Tiberius Kirk because Kirk foiled his plot in the past. This episode is awesome for tons of reasons: time travel, O'Brien in a barfight, Jadzia in a skirt-uniform, and Tribbles, Tribbles everywhere just to name a few. Using the tech from Forrest Gump, the DS9 team is inserted right into the epiosde "The Trouble with Tribbles" from the original series, and it's practically flawless. They just had so much fun making this episode and it really shows.
1: TNG - The Inner Light
Yeah, I'm not terribly original on this choice. So what? I love this episode and everything about it. A lone space probe zaps Picard right on the bridge of the Enterprise and he wakes to find himself as another man on a distant, ancient planet. He ends up living the rest of his life on that planet, slowly coming to terms with the idea that his life as a Starfleet officer may have all been a dream. So much good acting from Stewart here. After living several decades in the life of this other man, Picard wakes up on the bridge of his ship and is shocked to discover that he's only been out for like 25 minutes. Oh, and there's the flute. Just go watch the episode. You know what I'm talking about. It's so freaking good.
Honorable Mentions: Oh man, too many to name so I'll ramble off a few here just for kicks.
Badda-bing, Badda-bang
Best of Both Worlds
Yesterday's Enterprise
Message in a Bottle
The House of Quark
The Changeling
In a Mirror, Darkly
Who Mourns for Morn?
A Fistfull of Datas
Time's Arrow
The Chain of Command
The Year of Hell
Parallels
The First Duty
What are your favorite episodes?
What say you?!