Best Classic Star Trek Episodes?

[jim48]

The Top Ten List and the Top Twenty List have remained virtually unchanged for decades. What are your favorites? Here I submit a few that never got the recognition they deserved, IMO:

"Miri" Written by Adrian Spies, directed by Vincent McEveety. A classic, thanks mostly to Kim Darby. A gem!

"The Return of the Archons" story by Gene Roddenberry, brilliantly directed by Joe Pevney. Check out the camera compositions. One of the best social commentary shows they did, back when they had some bucks to spend on Star Trek.

"Metamorphosis" written by Gene L. **** and beautifully directed by Ralph Senensky. Great science fiction and great Star Trek!

"Requiem for Methuselah" written by Jerome Bixby. Again, great science fiction and great Star Trek! Sad, poignant. The music editors did a good job with that one.

 

[docm]

You forgot Balance of Terror - introduced the Romulans and Mark Lenard, who later was cast as Spock's father, Sarek.

Most fans don't know that Mark Lenard and Leonard Nimoy also appeared together in an episode of the original Mission: Impossible.

 

[drwayne]

The two that I have on my iPhone (with updated special effects) right now are:

(1) The Doomsday Machine - probably my all-time favorite

(2) Obsession - Would be a classic just based on the famous line "Cross-circuiting to B".

Kirk: And what's your appraisal of your conduct
back on the planet?
Garrovick: I delayed firing.
Kirk: And if you hadn't delayed firing?
...no difference, Ensign. No weapon known
would have made any difference. Then-­
or eleven years ago.


Other favorites:

(3) Devil in the Dark ' "I'm a doctor, not a brick layer"

(4) The Empath - "We will NOT leave our friend"

 

[ZenGalacticore]

'Methuselah' and 'Archons' were good, thoroughly enjoyed those two. 'Balance of Terror' is one of my favs too, as well as 'Doomsday Machine', when Spock says, "Vulcans never bluff".

Man, with the special effects they can do today they sure could've done some wizardry around the "Balance of Terror" story. The whole theme of two chess champions-Kirk and the Romulan captain- anticipating each others' moves and counter-moves, I loved that. Equally gifted commanders on opposing sides.

Some of my other favs were "The Immunity Syndrome", "All Our Yesterdays", "Tomorrow is Yesterday", and "The Ultimate Computer". Mariette Hartley was soooooooooooooo freakin' HOT in "All Our Yesterdays". Her eyes, and that bod, WOW!!!

In the "Ultimate Computer", during a mock battle training exercise, the M-5 computer starts firing on the other sister constellation class starships for real. Somebody says something like "Don't they know this is a game?" And Kirk says "Yes. But they don't know it's M-5's game." Great lines in that show.

Oh yeah!! Couldn't forget "A Piece of the Action". I wrote a joke about that one: Jojo Cracko Crispies- 'they come in a bag'!! :lol:

 

[jim48]

Good examples, Zen, of good episodes that never make any lists, which says a lot about the quality of the show. With "A Piece of the Action" Gene **** threw the Prime Directive clean out the window. Ironic, since it was his concept. I thought the two head gangsters in that one were a scream! Jo-Jo Cracko with Scotty "I got rights!!!" Scotty: "You got nuthin." :lol:

 

[a_lost_packet_]

You forgot Balance of Terror -

That's my favorite episode.

 

[jim48]

You forgot Balance of Terror -

That's my favorite episode.

Fred Steiner composed additional music for that, not a complete original score, which he later reprised for "Mirror, Mirror". His additional music for "The Corbomite Manuever" and "What Are Little Girls Made of?" got played to death. Howard Anderson Company had their hands full with all the visuals for those early shows, Corbomite Manuever being the most expensive visual effects show they did. Anderson later suffered a nervous breakdown thanks to Star Trek and they had to hire another effects company to do the model work.

 

[docm]

Man, with the special effects they can do today they sure could've done some wizardry around the "Balance of Terror" story. The whole theme of two chess champions-Kirk and the Romulan captain- anticipating each others' moves and counter-moves, I loved that. Equally gifted commanders on opposing sides.

Many Star Trek TOS episodes were remastered with updated special effects;

Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Corbomite Maneuver, The Man Trap, The Naked Time, Charlie X, Balance Of Terror, Dagger Of The Mind, Miri, The Galileo Seven, The Menagerie (original pilot), Arena, A Taste Of Armageddon, Space Seed (Khan), This Side Of Paradise, The Devil In The Dark, Errand Of Mercy, The City On The Edge Of Forever, Catspaw, Amok Time, The Doomsday Machine, Mirror, Mirror, The Deadly Years, I, Mudd, The Trouble With Tribbles, Bread And Circuses, Journey To Babel, The Omega Glory, The Paradise Syndrome, And The Children Shall Lead, Spock's Brain, The Tholian Web, For The World Is Hollow, Wink Of An Eye, All Our Yesterdays

Amazon has the 3 season set for $179.00

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb1mTPC1nQ8[/youtube]

Doomsday Machine

Space Seed

Tomorrow Is Yesterday (going around the Sun to time travel)

 

[jim48]

Yeah. I was watching a lot of that new CGI Star Trek footage one night. Very impressive. What's next, Forbidden Planet? The War of the Worlds? The Wizard of Oz? Give me the original effects footage. A lot of folks worked very hard on those Star Trek visual effects. Many of the shots of the Enterprise were terrific. Beautiful planets, to boot. Some mediocre work along the way, to be sure, but give me the original stuff. "The Doomsday Machine" was a mixed-bag. Some terrific shots and one or two literally shaky ones. What's next, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which won 2 Emmy awards for visual effects? Yes, look above! "Tomorrow Is Yesterday" was a surprisingly costly show from a visual effects standpoint, and yet we never saw the sun!!! They made up for that in "Operation: Annihilate!" The triple-head printer, which was state-of-the-art in 1966, put three pieces of film together. On one piece of film was the model of the Enterprise. On another was a model of a planet. The third piece of film contained the background star field.

 

[docm]

And now even a consumer video editor can do that many times over. Corel's (formerly Ulead's) VideoStudio Pro X2 can actually do a main track, 6 overlay tracks and 2 title tracks with surround Dolby and in HD if you want. $60 online. Times sure have changed.

 

[jim48]

And now even a consumer video editor can do that many times over. Corel's (formerly Ulead's) VideoStudio Pro X2 can actually do a main track, 6 overlay tracks and 2 title tracks with surround Dolby and in HD if you want. $60 online. Times sure have changed.

Well, Doc, you and I have managed to hijack this thread. Besides "Balance of Terror" do you have any other episodes that are damn good but never made it to a list? I would add "The Conscience of the King" because that was a murder mystery and aliens weren't taking over the ship and it was a psychodrama with an original musical score by Mullendore and they should have done at least a couple of more like that. That one pretty much stands alone within Star Trek, when you stop and think about it.

 

[drwayne]

"Wolf in The Fold" is another personal favorite, though it probably could have been done a little
scarier. Yet another example of past historical figures (in this case evil ones) tied to an entity
existing in the future.

Wayne

 

[yevaud]

The City on the Edge of Forever, This Side of Paradise, Mudd's Women, Dagger of the Mind...

Aw hell, they're all good.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

On digitally remastered vs. original.

I do like the original effects. They add a flavor that you can't capture with remastered scenes. However, the old saying "Imitation is the best form of flattery" comes to mind. After all, they're not changing the story, they're just making it more appealing to a newer audience. In a way, I think it's a great thing. The simple fact is you CAN remaster episodes and it doesn't change how great the story was! New fans of the TOS stand, waiting to be created. But, we'll always have the old episodes and will always pay homage to them.

One day, "digitally real" actors WILL exist. There will be a huge stink made about them, to be sure. But, we will have them. We will have digital versions of Capt. Kirk as played by Shatner and all the rest of the cast.

What then?

Will the way be paved for new adventures of the classic crew or, will it be barred by the courts? Will John Wayne show up at the OK Corral in "Spectre of the Gun?" How will we feel about it if we're around to see it?

Sorry for adding to the derail. But, it's a question I mull over from time to time. Digitally real actors aren't going to be something that only the industry and the copyright courts have to deal with. The fans are going to have to deal with it as well.

 

[ZenGalacticore]

Documentarian, you've just earned your pay for the week. Good...job... mister!! Now, can you give us warp 10 and a full forward phaser bank?

Jim, 'Dammit Jim', I don't have a problem with digitally remastering of special effects if they're done well and in good taste and don't monkey around with the original story and plot line. Or screw up the essence of the original, unlike what George Lucas has done to his originals.

Besides, most of us have the original Star Trek on disc already. If I had $200 bucks to spare right now, I'd go out and buy the redos right now! Thanks again doc.

I wonder how long it will be before they're running the remasters on cable? They ought to run them on primetime, 8 o'clock on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. That would bring in multitudes more of the younger people out there who demand great effects. Probably enlarging the original Star Trek following much more than the recent film did. I want these kids to see what great storytelling and tv really is, don't you?

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...I wonder how long it will be before they're running the remasters on cable? They ought to run them on primetime, 8 o'clock on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. That would bring in multitudes more of the younger people out there who demand great effects. Probably enlarging the original Star Trek following much more than the recent film did. I want these kids to see what great storytelling and tv really is, don't you?

They're running them now. But, they run at odd times, IIRC. They're aren't enough of them to devote a time-slot to, I think. IIRC, they run at like 6am on one station in my lineup (WB? Discovery?) and sometimes late at night on TNT, maybe?

There's not enough to devote a prime-time slot to. But, I think it'd be an excellent Saturday or Sunday afternoon, once-a-week slot-filler.

 

[crazyeddie]

One of my top-5 favorites that hasn't been mentioned yet is "The Galileo Seven". Great plot with a wonderful buildup of tension and suspense, and a white-knuckle, saved-in-the-nick-of-time ending. Spock gets his logical comeuppance, and his character develops a new complexity, which, until this point in the new series, was rather one-dimensional. As an interesting aside, the ape-creature monsters in this episode had faces that were considered too grotesque for television, and so they were edited out in the final broadcast versions. The remastered version has an impressive CGI of the shuttlecraft burning up in the cliffhanger finale:

 

[drwayne]

Actually, I fouind McCoys conduct in Galileo 7 somewhat unseemly. With a team in a dangerous
situation, conducting oneself in a way that undermines the respect that the crew has towards
its commanding officer is dangerous. All of course IMHO.

Wayne

p.s. One of the survivors of the Galileo 7 incident (Boma) shows up in one of Diane Carey's novels.
Interestingly, in the novel he is discharged from Star Fleet, not because Spock wrote him up
(he didn't), but because Scotty wrote him up.

 

[drwayne]

Yep, found it here:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Gal ... n_(episode)


Apocrypha

In the novel Dreadnought!, Scotty pressed charges against Boma for his treatment of Spock (who mentioned nothing about Boma's attitude in his report) during the mission and demanded a court martial, after which Boma was thrown out of Starfleet.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Well he did better than most redshirts. Most of them die!

 

[drwayne]

I have a soft spot for that novel - even though it is critically lambasted - simply because the
dreadnaught concept fascinated me...

 

[docm]

 

[a_lost_packet_]

Ah, the dreadnought class. IIRC, in the old TOS history it was never produced? That timeline may have changed.

When I was in gradeschool, I was in a "Star Trek" club. Heh, heh... I hadn't thought about that in years. But, seeing the profile pic reminded me that I had loaned a set of the original "Star Trek Blueprints" to a supposed friend of mine back then. I finally caught up with him a decade later and managed to get some of them back, but not all. /sniffle

But, I still have my Star Fleet Technical Manual and a bunch of other junk! (original)

 

[jim48]

Ah, the dreadnought class. IIRC, in the old TOS history it was never produced? That timeline may have changed.

When I was in gradeschool, I was in a "Star Trek" club. Heh, heh... I hadn't thought about that in years. But, seeing the profile pic reminded me that I had loaned a set of the original "Star Trek Blueprints" to a supposed friend of mine back then. I finally caught up with him a decade later and managed to get some of them back, but not all. /sniffle

But, I still have my Star Fleet Technical Manual and a bunch of other junk! (original)

The one that was published back in 1975-76 that I actually wrote a book report on in high school?

 

[StarRider1701]

Favorite Classic Star Trek episode?

ALL OF THEM.

They were all good. I've seen each one more times than I can even pretend to count! I don't care about the digitally remastered, updated special effects - I didn't watch the show for the FX. Or the music. I'm sure the new FX are ok, alright. But I'm not going out of my way to look for those, I've long since learned that "new and impoved" isn't always.