Favorite Star Trek The Original Series episodes

Just having a binge viewing of the DVDs. I remember being utterly enthralled when I first saw the series, on the BBC, fifty years ago. For me, no TV show has ever surpassed it.

Favourite Five From Each Season:
One
City On The Edge Of Forever
Taste Of Armageddon
Menagerie
Dagger Of The Mind
Errand Of Mercy
Two
Mirror Mirror
The Changeling
Doomsday Machine
Journey To Babel
Wolf in The Fold
Three
The Enterprise Incident
Turnabout Intruder
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
All Our Yesterdays
Empath

There were a handful of outright rubbish episodes, as well. My 'worst', from each season:
One - Mudd's Women
Two - A Piece Of The Action
Three - Mark Of Gideon

 

Aw, "Mark of Gideon" wasn't totally bad--Kirk and Odona made a cute couple, I think. I agree with you about "A Piece of the Action", though.

 

All of them except Deadly Years, Spock's Brain and Turnabout Intruder.

 

I like them all. Even "Spock's Brain" is entertaining.

 

My favorite episode is Arena. The Corbomite Maneuver is a close second.

The are polar opposites. Arena is one long fight, starting with our heroes getting nearly blown to bits during an alien bombardment on Cestus 3 and ending on an unnamed planet with Kirk in a fight to the death against a Gorn. The Corbomite Maneuver is a quiet game of wits, taking place on the Enterprise.

Yet the two episodes are the same story. Both show the crew combating an alien race, only to make a friend in the end. In Arena, it's Kirk's humanity that impresses the all-powerful Metron. In the last scene of The Corbomite Maneuver, the crew shares a glass of tranya with a six year old Clint Howard, err, Balok. In each, Kirk's cleverness wins the contest while the Federation's morals cements the victory.

They are classic Star Trek.

 

Turnabout Intruder is my favourite Trek episode. I’ve taken **** for that for years. Completely misunderstood piece of work - and the disdain for that is one of the few instances of Trek groupthink.
Then City, Balance, Doomsday, Wolf, Ultimate, Changeling, Yesterdays, Paradise Syndrome, Mirror, Amok, Arena, Archons, Enemy Within, Devil and Tholian.

 

I never thought it was groupthink. When I saw it as a kid I thought it was hilariously bad way before I knew others knew it was bad. I just pretend that Trek didn’t have a final episode just like I pretend the final episode of enterprise doesn’t exist.

My trash is Your treasure...

 

I think that seas0n one had a host of terrific episodes and seas0n two as well.

The dialog in Spock’s Brain would have made a great Marx Brothers science fiction movie.

 

Probably today: Assignment Earth

 

Fair enough - it always resonated with me - some beautiful lines, really progressive moments for the times - when Lester as Kirk leans over Coleman’s shoulder and says, ‘We’ll both be exposed as murderers’, to me, that bit of homoeroticism was as brave for the 60s as the interracial kiss.
Another great moment when Coleman says to Lester/Kirk, ‘You are insane, Dr. Lester’ - it is genuinely unnerving. Shatner’s performance at the court martial - and on and on. So many nuanced, measured pieces of acting, so many great lines. I find that people are generally incapable of changing their minds about Trek episodes they first saw when they were kids, for better or for worse.

 

My top tier of favorite episodes, split by season, and with my favorite of each season listed first (the remainder in no particular order):

Season 1
The City on the Edge of Forever
Balance of Terror
Errand of Mercy
Arena
This Side of Paradise

Season 2
Mirror, Mirror
Wolf in the Fold
Assignment: Earth

Season 3
All Our Yesterdays
The Enterprise Incident
The Tholian Web

Doug

 

Balance Of Terror, The Enterprise Incident and Amok Time.

 

In college back in the day we rarely used the real titles, so for half the real titles I scratch my head or have to look them up.

I loved "The Vietnam Planet" and "The Amusement Park Planet". And c'mon, "Spock's Beard" was such an obvious title that a band named themselves after it.

 

The Doomsday Machine is my very favorite episode and is the only one I can actually recall seeing during the original NBC run.
William Windom was simply outstanding as Commodore Decker and should have earned an Emmy nod for his performance.
There are a handful of episodes that I found dull as a kid and never paid much attention to until I was older and upon watching them and paying attention, discovered were actually pretty good.
One such episode is Requiem for Methuselah, which I always changed the channel on as a kid. It was shown on ME TV this past Saturday night and it is definitely a decent episode. One reason I didn't give it much of a chance originally is that is features James Daly, an actor whom I have never really liked. On the other hand, it also stars the beautiful and very underrated actress Louise Sorel, whom I have long had something of a crush on.
As I said, a decent episode, especially during the hit or miss third season.

 

I grew up with the show. My parents let me stay up late to watch it when it originally aired. Then in the 70s it was a staple of late-night tv on channel 11 in New York after the Honeymooners.

I've seen all the episodes countless times (like many) and the most enjoyable for me are City and Mirror, Mirror.

But I have to put in a word for A Taste of Armageddon. This is a great episode and focuses on how a civilization has made warfare "painless" without destruction of infrastructure, just loss of life. Thus, a state of war has existed for hundreds of years. Then things get dicey when Kirk violates the prime directive.

I think of this episode often because warfare is moving in that direction. Today was have people in Arizona who push a button to kill other people halfway across the world via drone. A good film was made about this; Andrew Niccol's Good Kill with Ethan Hawke.

 

You guys are not alone.

 

Hard choice but I think most of the first season is perfect. Likewise, part of season two.

 

Balance of Terror is probably my favorite, closely followed by Amok Time and The Menagerie. (The Cage is great to me, too, but I like the Spock mutiny plot.)

I have a secret love for Way to Eden. That ep and I, we reach.

Gideon is another pleasure. The premise falls apart instantly you consider it. But she is lovely, the faces at the window are creepy, and Spock getting twisted into knots by politicians is amusing.

 

“We’re not going to kill today.”

so good

 

Nobody delivers a good speach like Captain Kirk (Shatner)!

 

The one with the green chick.

 

That’s The Menagerie.

 

The Menagerie. I’ll have to rewatch the Cage again from the box set to compare.

 

Started watching when Season 3 was airing originally, sitting up late with my mother, and never stopped watching. Faves:

Season 1

The Naked Time
The Corbomite Maneuver
The Menagerie
Balance of Terror
The Galileo Seven
Space Seed
Errand of Mercy
The City on the Edge of Forever

Season 2

Amok Time
The Changeling
Mirror, Mirror*
The Doomsday Machine
The Ultimate Computer

Season 3

The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
Whom Gods Destroy
Requiem for Methuselah

* indicates all time favorite.