What are the Trekkiest Trek episodes?
July 23, 2020 8:35 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for the Star Trek episodes that are the most stereotypically "Star Trek", across any of the series. Not the best episodes, although hopefully not actively bad, but the ones that are the most Star Trek.
A non-exhaustive list of what I mean:
So far, the episode that almost perfectly resembles what I'm looking for is TNG "Who Watches the Watchers". It has all the pieces. The episode where Riker ends up in the alien hospital is similar.
What other episodes are there like these, especially episodes that (like those two) are actually good?
A non-exhaustive list of what I mean:
- Lots of talking, perhaps even a meeting in a conference room
- Philosophical debates
- Star Trek optimism
- Perhaps bad costumes and obviously cheap location shooting
- Some amount of action of some kind is good (gives opportunity for classic two-handed Starfleet punch) but not strictly required
- Being an important plot arc episode doesn't completely rule it out but might make it less likely to be what I'm looking for
So far, the episode that almost perfectly resembles what I'm looking for is TNG "Who Watches the Watchers". It has all the pieces. The episode where Riker ends up in the alien hospital is similar.
What other episodes are there like these, especially episodes that (like those two) are actually good?
I would probably have a look at The Tholian Web from TOS. I'm not sure what you'd consider bad costumes, but there are cheesy hazmat suits and bad (by today's standards) effects. I think Uhura shows up in a nightgown at some point, too.
posted by holborne at 8:42 PM on July 23, 2020
posted by holborne at 8:42 PM on July 23, 2020
TNG’s “Darmok” also seems like a strong candidate. Debates about the nature of language, some funnily un-scary combat, and a really thought provoking source of conflict and resolution. It seems like a flagship episode, so to speak.
posted by voltairemodern at 8:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [25 favorites]
posted by voltairemodern at 8:42 PM on July 23, 2020 [25 favorites]
The Inner Light? Is that too highbrow for you? :)
posted by Alensin at 8:46 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Alensin at 8:46 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
"I, Borg"
While it doesn't have action, it meets the first three criteria.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 8:50 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
While it doesn't have action, it meets the first three criteria.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 8:50 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
TNG: The Next Phase. You've got: two characters from different backgrounds coming together, Vulcan antics, technobabble, Data learning about humans, and fun goofing on literary cliches. It's one of my comforting episodes of Trek because it is so Trekky. Also has a fairly dopey fight scene and some not great special effects.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:11 PM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:11 PM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
Sorry, Romulan antics, not Vulcan antics. My mistake.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:17 PM on July 23, 2020
posted by Ideal Impulse at 9:17 PM on July 23, 2020
Leaving out episodes that have already been mentioned:
TOS:
The Corbomite Maneuver
Mirror, Mirror
Return to Tomorrow
The Ultimate Computer
TNG:
Q Who
Deja Q
Yesterday’s Enterprise
The Drumhead
Half a Life
The First Duty
DS9:
Emissary
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets
Blood Oath
The Maquis (I/II)
The Visitor
Homefront / Paradise Lost
For the Uniform
Far Beyond the Stars
In the Pale Moonlight
VOY:
Death Wish
Tuvix
Year of Hell (I/II)
Living Witness
Timeless
One Small Step
ENT:
Strange New World
Dear Doctor
Cogenitor
Damage
Others will know Discovery and Picard better than I do. These episodes focus on your first three criteria.
posted by bryon at 9:45 PM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
TOS:
The Corbomite Maneuver
Mirror, Mirror
Return to Tomorrow
The Ultimate Computer
TNG:
Q Who
Deja Q
Yesterday’s Enterprise
The Drumhead
Half a Life
The First Duty
DS9:
Emissary
Duet
In the Hands of the Prophets
Blood Oath
The Maquis (I/II)
The Visitor
Homefront / Paradise Lost
For the Uniform
Far Beyond the Stars
In the Pale Moonlight
VOY:
Death Wish
Tuvix
Year of Hell (I/II)
Living Witness
Timeless
One Small Step
ENT:
Strange New World
Dear Doctor
Cogenitor
Damage
Others will know Discovery and Picard better than I do. These episodes focus on your first three criteria.
posted by bryon at 9:45 PM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]
TOS: "City on the edge of Forever"
TNG: "Measure of a man" "The offspring"
DS9: "Far beyond the stars" "In the pale moonlight"
VOY: "Living Witness"
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:46 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
TNG: "Measure of a man" "The offspring"
DS9: "Far beyond the stars" "In the pale moonlight"
VOY: "Living Witness"
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:46 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
I only ever loved the original series and was coming here to say City on the Edge of Forever.
posted by less of course at 10:23 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by less of course at 10:23 PM on July 23, 2020 [1 favorite]
+1 measure of a man. Big debate on whether Data has rights or is property of Starfleet.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:30 AM on July 24, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:30 AM on July 24, 2020 [6 favorites]
The best example I can think of that hasn't been mentioned is TNG "The Chase"—the one where, at the end, Picard almost gets through to a Romulan.
TNG "Homeward" fits and is good. A little low on action and, by TNG standards, optimism, but still very very Trek. Also one more vote for "Measure of a Man"—it may be a defining example, though it lacks action.
TNG "Ensign Ro" had all of this IIRC except that it's an oddity insofar as it's partly about introducing a new main cast character.
I haven't seen it in a while but maybe TNG "The Outcast"?
VOY "Blink of an Eye" is one of the better ones, fits most or all of these criteria IIRC, and hasn't been mentioned yet.
The season finale of PIC matches all of your criteria except that it's obviously VERY tied in to a SEASON-LONG story arc.
DS9 "Blood Oath" fits in every respect except for optimism, and it does have a lot of action.
DS9 "Pale Moonlight" is neither optimistic nor very conference-roomy. It's in fact, by design, pretty counter to true Trekkiness in the terms you've outlined.
Discovery has almost no conference-rooming nor, on an individual-episode-level, optimism—which may partly explain why a lot of people reject it. It's emphatically *not* JJ Trek, but it's also not really ever what you're asking for IIRC.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:39 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
TNG "Homeward" fits and is good. A little low on action and, by TNG standards, optimism, but still very very Trek. Also one more vote for "Measure of a Man"—it may be a defining example, though it lacks action.
TNG "Ensign Ro" had all of this IIRC except that it's an oddity insofar as it's partly about introducing a new main cast character.
I haven't seen it in a while but maybe TNG "The Outcast"?
VOY "Blink of an Eye" is one of the better ones, fits most or all of these criteria IIRC, and hasn't been mentioned yet.
The season finale of PIC matches all of your criteria except that it's obviously VERY tied in to a SEASON-LONG story arc.
DS9 "Blood Oath" fits in every respect except for optimism, and it does have a lot of action.
DS9 "Pale Moonlight" is neither optimistic nor very conference-roomy. It's in fact, by design, pretty counter to true Trekkiness in the terms you've outlined.
Discovery has almost no conference-rooming nor, on an individual-episode-level, optimism—which may partly explain why a lot of people reject it. It's emphatically *not* JJ Trek, but it's also not really ever what you're asking for IIRC.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 4:39 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]
TNG: Captain's Holiday. It's the one where Picard goes to Risa. It has the adventure and captain's romance that is a callback to TOS, some fights, adventure, and Picard carrys the optimism here in his instance on doing the right thing and not just selling the artifact they are hunting.
posted by Jungo at 7:27 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by Jungo at 7:27 AM on July 24, 2020
TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles
I don't know if this really meets your criteria but this is iconic TOS to me.
posted by jclarkin at 7:37 AM on July 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
I don't know if this really meets your criteria but this is iconic TOS to me.
posted by jclarkin at 7:37 AM on July 24, 2020 [4 favorites]
Adding to the chorus of TNG's "Measure of a Man."
From DS9, I'll add the two-parter "Past Tense," which involves several of the characters traveling back to 2020s San Francisco and confronting the apathy of society then vs their own optimistic future. It's a little bit highbrow, a little bit action-y, and very rooted in the ST universe.
posted by AndrewInDC at 7:41 AM on July 24, 2020
From DS9, I'll add the two-parter "Past Tense," which involves several of the characters traveling back to 2020s San Francisco and confronting the apathy of society then vs their own optimistic future. It's a little bit highbrow, a little bit action-y, and very rooted in the ST universe.
posted by AndrewInDC at 7:41 AM on July 24, 2020
Nthing "The Trouble With Tribbles", just so much fun.
TNG: "The Offspring", "Measure of a Man" and "Cause and Effect"
posted by kathrynm at 8:02 AM on July 24, 2020
TNG: "The Offspring", "Measure of a Man" and "Cause and Effect"
posted by kathrynm at 8:02 AM on July 24, 2020
I'd mentions DS9's "Rules of Engagement" - Worf faces down a champion of the Klingon Empire in a court of Federation Law.
The only point I'd be dubious about is the Star Trek optimism part, given that DS9 is a lot darker than other series, but even if the circumstances are more grim than I imagine TOS Trek, I think the Federation is definitely on the side of being uncompromising in its ideals in this episode.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:21 AM on July 24, 2020
The only point I'd be dubious about is the Star Trek optimism part, given that DS9 is a lot darker than other series, but even if the circumstances are more grim than I imagine TOS Trek, I think the Federation is definitely on the side of being uncompromising in its ideals in this episode.
posted by Zalzidrax at 8:21 AM on July 24, 2020
DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations" is so meta-Trek. It includes DS9 characters interacting within the TOS "The Trouble with Tribbles" episode, so it has a bunch of classic TOS cheesiness, a great action/fight scene (which seamlessly integrates TOS and DS9 characters, so kind of goes against the bad production values thing, but worth it), definitely lots of talking, and a ton of Star Trek optimism. Bonus: Dax's hero worship of Spock and Kirk.
posted by bedhead at 10:00 AM on July 24, 2020
posted by bedhead at 10:00 AM on July 24, 2020
Yeah, "Trouble With Tribbles."
Classic Spock, petting a tribble and seeming to zone out.
Classic Kirk, getting bopped on the head by tribbles and gloating at the Romulans.
Classic Chekov: "Quadro-triticalene. It was a Russian inwention."
Classic Scotty: After beating the dickens out of the Romulans, excitedly rushing off to catch up on his technical journals.
Not a matter of life or death, the fate of the universe doesn't hang in the balance. This was one of those episodes, like the better Sherlock Holmes stories, where the characters were just folks you enjoyed being with.
posted by SPrintF at 10:02 AM on July 24, 2020
Classic Spock, petting a tribble and seeming to zone out.
Classic Kirk, getting bopped on the head by tribbles and gloating at the Romulans.
Classic Chekov: "Quadro-triticalene. It was a Russian inwention."
Classic Scotty: After beating the dickens out of the Romulans, excitedly rushing off to catch up on his technical journals.
Not a matter of life or death, the fate of the universe doesn't hang in the balance. This was one of those episodes, like the better Sherlock Holmes stories, where the characters were just folks you enjoyed being with.
posted by SPrintF at 10:02 AM on July 24, 2020
TOS: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Hear me out.
Although acknowledged by many as one of the weaker season 3 episodes, it's always been one of my favorites. Frank Gorshin is remarkable in it. Although you could read it as overacting, the way he throws himself into the character is delightful to watch. He also holds himself in very weird positions thst help him seem alien.
The episode is TOS's attempt to deal with civil rights, and is heavy handed, but its heart is in the right place. It also features the self destruct sequence which was repeated in many other Star Treks series.
The overall message is that the type of behavior that Bele and Lokai demonstrate has been gone from the Federation for centuries. That's about as Star Trek as you can get.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:24 AM on July 24, 2020
Hear me out.
Although acknowledged by many as one of the weaker season 3 episodes, it's always been one of my favorites. Frank Gorshin is remarkable in it. Although you could read it as overacting, the way he throws himself into the character is delightful to watch. He also holds himself in very weird positions thst help him seem alien.
The episode is TOS's attempt to deal with civil rights, and is heavy handed, but its heart is in the right place. It also features the self destruct sequence which was repeated in many other Star Treks series.
The overall message is that the type of behavior that Bele and Lokai demonstrate has been gone from the Federation for centuries. That's about as Star Trek as you can get.
posted by wittgenstein at 11:24 AM on July 24, 2020
Response by poster: Basically all great recommendations! Heartening that everybody else sees what I was trying to get at.
"Darmok" and "Measure of a Man" I left off because I was thinking of them as too good. But in retrospect, they definitely fit the description.
posted by vogon_poet at 2:18 PM on July 24, 2020
"Darmok" and "Measure of a Man" I left off because I was thinking of them as too good. But in retrospect, they definitely fit the description.
posted by vogon_poet at 2:18 PM on July 24, 2020
TNG: Remember Me
Voyager: The Thaw
Discovery:
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
New Eden
posted by bettafish at 2:37 PM on July 24, 2020
Voyager: The Thaw
Discovery:
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad
New Eden
posted by bettafish at 2:37 PM on July 24, 2020
From my super-Trekophile family member:
“No one's going to believe me when I say ‘Bem’ from The Animated Series.
Okay, the weirdest episodes of people talking optimistically about big ideas, preferably in boardrooms:
TOS 2x09 "Metamorphosis"
TOS 2x10 "Journey to Babel"
TOS 2x14 "Wolf in the Fold"
TOS 3x16 "The Mark of Gideon"
TAS 2x02 "Bem"
TNG 2x05 "Loud as a Whisper"
TNG 2x20 "The Emissary"
TNG 4x07 "Reunion"
TNG 4x14 "Clues"
TNG 7x17 "Masks"
DS9 1x01/02 "Emissary"
DS9 1x08 "Dax"
DS9 1x10 "Move Along Home"
DS9 4x01/02 "The Way of the Warrior"
VOY 1x01/02 "Caretaker"
VOY 2x23 "The Thaw"
VOY 3x12 "Macrocosm"
VOY 5x19 "The Fight"
ENT 1x05 "Unexpected"
ENT 2x05 "A Night in Sickbay"
ENT 3x10 "Similitude"
(I am intentionally reaching for the weirdest of weird, because this is what Trek does better than anyone else.)”
posted by D.Billy at 5:02 AM on July 25, 2020
“No one's going to believe me when I say ‘Bem’ from The Animated Series.
Okay, the weirdest episodes of people talking optimistically about big ideas, preferably in boardrooms:
TOS 2x09 "Metamorphosis"
TOS 2x10 "Journey to Babel"
TOS 2x14 "Wolf in the Fold"
TOS 3x16 "The Mark of Gideon"
TAS 2x02 "Bem"
TNG 2x05 "Loud as a Whisper"
TNG 2x20 "The Emissary"
TNG 4x07 "Reunion"
TNG 4x14 "Clues"
TNG 7x17 "Masks"
DS9 1x01/02 "Emissary"
DS9 1x08 "Dax"
DS9 1x10 "Move Along Home"
DS9 4x01/02 "The Way of the Warrior"
VOY 1x01/02 "Caretaker"
VOY 2x23 "The Thaw"
VOY 3x12 "Macrocosm"
VOY 5x19 "The Fight"
ENT 1x05 "Unexpected"
ENT 2x05 "A Night in Sickbay"
ENT 3x10 "Similitude"
(I am intentionally reaching for the weirdest of weird, because this is what Trek does better than anyone else.)”
posted by D.Billy at 5:02 AM on July 25, 2020
I just thought I'd mention that there are TNG and TAS threads on FanFare if you didn't already know.
posted by kathrynm at 8:41 AM on July 25, 2020
posted by kathrynm at 8:41 AM on July 25, 2020
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Devil in the Dark
Balance of Terror
TNG:
The Defector
posted by The Hyacinth Girl at 8:41 PM on July 23, 2020 [3 favorites]