10 greatest Star Trek: The Unique Sequence episodes, ranked

It’s arduous to think about immediately, however again within the late 1960s, the unique Star Trek was not thought of successful. The bold science fiction sequence was consistently getting ready to cancellation and was minimize brief solely three years into its deliberate five-season run.

Nevertheless, it’s necessary to place Trek’s obvious failure into historic context as, given that the majority markets within the U.S. had solely three tv channels to select from, even a low-rated present like Star Trek was being watched by about 20% of everybody watching tv on a Thursday night time, or roughly 10 million households. This yr’s season of HBO’s Succession was considered by roughly Eight million households per week, which makes it successful by immediately’s requirements. Star Trek’s viewers solely grew as soon as it went into reruns within the early 1970s, and by the point Star Trek: The Movement Image hit theaters in 1979, it was a real cultural phenomenon. Immediately, the Star Trek franchise is taken into account one of many crown jewels of the Paramount library.

Although arguably outshined by its most affluent spinoff, Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology, Star Trek: The Unique Sequence holds up remarkably effectively for a imaginative and prescient of our future imagined practically 60 years in our previous. It’s an area journey sequence that tackles social or political points from what was, on the time, a daring and progressive perspective knowledgeable by the modern civil rights motion, sexual revolution, and backlash towards the Vietnam Battle. Conveying these values via fanciful science fiction didn’t solely enable its writers to get away with loads of subversive messages, it additionally delivered them in a method that is still enjoyable to observe a long time later — enjoyable sufficient that followers are prepared to forgive when its concepts, or its particular results, crumble below trendy scrutiny.

These 10 episodes, nonetheless, unquestionably stand the take a look at of time, and because of the continuity-light nature of mid-20th century tv, any one among them could possibly be your first Star Trek episode. (Remember, nonetheless, that the order wherein basic Trek episodes are listed varies relying on the supply. For our functions, we’re utilizing the numbering from streaming service Paramount+.)

10. Mirror, Mirror (season 2, episode 4)

Even should you’ve by no means seen an episode of Star Trek, you’re certain to be a minimum of slightly accustomed to Mirror, Mirror via cultural osmosis. On this 1967 basic, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan), and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are unintentionally transported to an alternate universe, the place they encounter dastardly evil variations of their beloved shipmates. As a substitute of the benevolent United Federation of Planets, this ship serves the fascist Terran Empire, which threatens to annihilate a peaceable planet for refusing to undergo itsrule. Our heroes are pressured to pose as their evil counterparts whereas they seek for a method house and attempt to avert the genocide they’ve been ordered to carry out.

This all sounds heavier than it’s — like a lot of basic Trek, Mirror Mirror may be very camp, with brightly coloured costumes, over-the-top performances, and a basic sense of enjoyable. The solid is clearly having a ball enjoying the depraved variations of their characters (or enjoying the great variations of their characters enjoying the depraved variations), and it’s no marvel why a number of future incarnations of Trek would return to the Mirror Universe, often for wacky journey episodes. (For a extra grim and brutal tackle this similar idea, go to the again half of Star Trek: Discovery’s first season.) Nevertheless, Mirror, Mirror nonetheless comes full with Trek’s well-known humanist optimism, as Kirk tries to persuade this universe’s menacing, bearded Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that regimes dominated by worry are unsustainable and, due to this fact, illogical. Given sufficient time, peace and cooperation will all the time win out over hate and violence.

9. A Style of Armageddon (season 1, episode 24)

A Style of Armageddon could not seem on many “Finest Of” lists, but it surely’s 100% pure, uncut Star Trek. On this episode, Kirk and firm go to Eminiar VII, a seemingly peaceable planet that’s, in truth, embroiled in a centuries-long battle with a neighboring world. Slightly than fireplace precise bombs at one another, the combatants conduct simulated assaults, decide the hypothetical demise toll, after which order the “useless” residents to report back to disintegration chambers. When Kirk and his touchdown occasion are recorded as casualties, they resolve to place an finish to Eminiar VII’s supposedly “civilized” methodology of warfare.

Whereas Kirk arguably has no proper to intervene with how this sovereign planet conducts its affairs, the purpose of A Style of Armageddon is to replicate on America’s try to make fixed navy battle extra palatable, and even invisible to the common American. Or, in a bigger sense, it’s a commentary on the convenience with which a tradition can change into accustomed to demise and violence, as long as it’s a part of a longtime routine. As a result of these simulated bombings depart properties, business, and even the navy infrastructure itself completely unhurt, it’s straightforward to neglect that Eminiar VII is even at battle — that’s, till it claims your life or the life of somebody you’re keen on.

When even these losses are framed as needed sacrifices to take care of normalcy, it minimizes the inducement to make peace. Kirk (and, by extension, writers Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon) argues that battle is revolting regardless of how a lot you gown it up, and that it should be brutal, terrifying, and omnipresent for all concerned, or else it would by no means cease. The previous half-century of perpetual U.S. navy intervention overseas has confirmed this thesis to be chillingly correct.

8. The Menagerie, Elements I and II (season 1, episodes 12 and 13)

When you’re watching Star Trek on Paramount+, you’ll discover that the episode it has listed as “season 1, episode 1,” The Cage, isn’t precisely the present you have been anticipating. As a substitute of the well-known Captain James T. Kirk, the usEnterprise is below the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), and aside from Mr. Spock — who smiles?! — the remainder of the crew can also be unfamiliar. That’s as a result of The Cage is Star Trek’s unique pilot episode, which was rejected by NBC, resulting in a second pilot being commissioned with a brand new solid and modified tone. The Cage wouldn’t air as its personal episode till 1988, however throughout manufacturing of Star Trek’s first season in 1966, a price range crunch led to author/creator Gene Roddenberry repurposing footage from the already-completed pilot into a brand new script within the type of flashbacks.

This fiscally minded resolution endowed Star Trek and its characters with a historical past, immediately making the universe a much bigger and extra fascinating place. The 2-part Menagerie sees Spock, the one remaining character from the unique solid, commandeer the Enterprise for the sake of its earlier captain, Christopher Pike. On the way in which to a forbidden planet, Spock makes use of mysterious footage from an journey 13 years prior to now to clarify his rash actions.

When you’ve already watched The Cage, then The Menagerie will appear to be a glorified clip present, wherein Kirk and firm spend half the runtime watching a earlier episode. Nevertheless, earlier than the streaming period, The Cage was often the final episode of The Unique Sequence {that a} fan would see, somewhat than the primary. Lately, nonetheless, The Cage and The Menagerie have taken on a brand new function, as bookends to the adventures of Christopher Pike, as portrayed by Anson Mount on trendy spinoff Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds. Unusual New Worlds (in addition to the second season of Star Trek: Discovery) happen after The Cage, however earlier than The Menagerie, permitting us to get to know Kirk’s predecessor in his personal context, in addition to creating the bond between Pike and Spock that can finally drive the Vulcan to mutiny. Even with none of this context, nonetheless, The Menagerie is an thrilling two-hour occasion, an eras-spanning thriller that can make you marvel why NBC handed on the Star Trek pilot within the first place.

7. The Doomsday Machine (season 2, episode 6)

As a result of manufacturing constraints of 1960s tv, the unique Star Trek didn’t usually intention for large-scale, awe-inspiring house motion. The Doomsday Machine is the closest that basic Trek ever got here to “epic,” and as compelling a narrative as it’s, it’s additionally Exhibit A as to why such a factor was impractical with the sources out there. Although its unique results required no small quantity of ingenuity (they couldn’t afford to provide their Enterprise mannequin battle injury, in order that they purchased one off the rack from a toy retailer and distressed it), the outcomes look mighty corny on a contemporary high-definition tv.

Nonetheless, the episode gained fame as boasting the largest-scale motion of the sequence, because the Enterprise groups up together with her badly broken sister ship, the usConstellation, to tackle an enormous planet-eating weapon. It additionally presages a theme that may change into frequent in Star Trek characteristic movies, because the Constellation’s grief-stricken Commodore Matt Decker (visitor star William Windom) embarks on a foolhardy quest for revenge towards the monster that bested him. (Trek would revisit Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact.)

The episode nonetheless works in a tacky B-movie form of method, which some followers would argue is the way in which it ought to nonetheless be loved. Nevertheless, when the sequence was remastered for top definition within the mid-2000s, the choice was made to recreate many of the particular results photographs for the sequence utilizing trendy know-how, for the reason that originals have been by no means anticipated to carry as much as trendy requirements. Most of those recreations are very trustworthy, to the extent that uninitiated viewers may not even understand they’d been changed. Within the case of The Doomsday Machine, nonetheless, the producers and results artists returned to the episode’s unique script and tried to understand author Norman Spinrad’s preliminary imaginative and prescient for the house battle sequences. The group at CBS Digital doesn’t sacrifice the general aesthetic of the sequence, however they do give us a peek at what The Doomsday Machine — and by extension, your complete Unique Sequence — may need seemed like with a characteristic movie price range. 

6. The Corbomite Maneuver (season 1, episode 11)

There could also be no higher introduction to the character of James T. Kirk than The Corbomite Maneuver. The primary episode produced after the sequence was picked up (although it didn’t air till later within the season), The Corbomite Maneuver finds the Enterprise on the mercy of a large alien vessel and accused of trespassing in its territory. Unable to outrun or outgun his mysterious adversary, Kirk does what he’ll later change into well-known for doing — he cheats. Or, somewhat, he alters the situations of the competition from one among technological superiority to one among crafty and guile. Within the course of, we get to study a bit about how every of the principle characters handles the extraordinary stress of a seemingly hopeless state of affairs, contrasted towards the extra relatable Everyman Lt. Bailey (visitor star Anthony Name). Although the motion hardly ever leaves the bridge of the Enterprise, it’s, in its personal method, probably the most thrilling episodes of the sequence.

Furthermore, The Corbomite Maneuver units the tone for Star Trek as a sequence. It’s an hour of journey that’s punctuated by moments of considerate introspection, heat friendship, and corny jokes. Its depiction of Starfleet and the Enterprise are clearly impressed by navy custom, however the message of the episode is one among compassion and persistence somewhat than conquest. These are scientists, not troopers, and whereas they expertise worry and doubt, none of their human frailties are a match for his or her curiosity. If that is what the way forward for humanity seems to be like, we need to be part of it.

5. The Satan within the Darkish (season 1, episode 26)

When Star Trek is operating on full thrusters, it’s equal elements foolish and profound. In The Satan within the Darkish, the Enterprise is distributed to the help of a mining colony the place employees are being hunted and killed by an unstoppable monster product of rock. We all know that the monster is product of rock as a result of the characters say so; It seems to be much more prefer it’s product of spray-painted Styrofoam and a shag rug. However as the strain rises and the thriller deepens, the goofiness of the rock monster turns into irrelevant, or perhaps a boon to the story.

Although it begins as a hunt for a cruel alien creature, The Satan within the Darkish turns into a narrative about prejudice and the universality of what we (in our restricted earthly expertise) would name “fundamental human rights.” This message is conveyed via tacky 1960s TV manufacturing values and a few very hammy performing, however the outcomes are pure and unpretentious, the form of storytelling that’s equally impactful on a jaded grownup and a wide-eyed baby.

Right here within the post-post-postmodern 2020s, we’re all complete professionals at deconstructing style tropes. The apply of subverting the viewers’s expectations as to what sort of story they’re watching or who the great guys and dangerous guys are wasn’t new in 1967, both, however within the sci-fi movie and tv of the period, the massive scary monster is often only a massive scary monster. The Satan within the Darkish exemplifies one among Star Trek’s most enduring themes: that the unknown might sound terrifying, however should you take the time to know it, it’s truly lovely.

4. The Bother with Tribbles (season 2, episode 15)

Star Trek is all the time science fiction, however its format presents loads of flexibility when it comes to methods to interpret that style. Even inside the course of a single sequence or season, most Star Trek reveals alternate between a wide range of tones and secondary genres, from grim political drama to steamy romance, or within the case of this episode, kooky office comedy. The Bother with Tribbles pits Captain Kirk and his gallant crew towards their most cussed foe but — bureaucratic pink tape. Assigned to take care of a container of grain that Federation directors insist is gravely necessary, the Enterprise turns into entangled in a really foolish misadventure involving an invasive species of cute, self-replicating furballs. For a captain accustomed to coping with high-stakes diplomacy and galactic protection, that is his worst workweek ever.

As awful a time as Kirk is having, The Bother with Tribbles is great enjoyable. It’s neither the primary, nor the final broadly comedic episode of Star Trek, however it’s the gold commonplace by which all Trek comedies are measured. Like every good Trek, it has stakes, a enjoyable science fiction premise, and charming moments of character, however all the things is ready just a bit bit askew, and the characters have seen. It isn’t parody, it’s state of affairs comedy, solely a state of affairs that you just’re unlikely to search out your self in except you’re the crew of a Federation starship. Nearly each subsequent Trek sequence would chase that Bother with Tribbles warmth a minimum of as soon as (Star Trek: Decrease Decks is mainly The Bother with Tribbles: The Sequence), with various ranges of success, however the unique stays an untouchable basic.

3. The place No Man Has Gone Earlier than (season 1, episode 4)

After The Cage was rejected by NBC, Desilu Studios (below the management of comedy queen Lucille Ball herself) took a second swing on the sequence, with a brand new solid and a quicker paced action-adventure story. This second pilot, The place No Man Has Gone Earlier than, introduces William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, in addition to George Takei as Lt. Sulu, James Doohan as Scotty, and Leonard Nimoy’s new, extra stoic interpretation of science officer Spock.

The episode sees Kirk’s pal and mentee, helmsman Gary Mitchell (visitor star Gary Lockwood), bombarded with cosmic radiation that grants him more and more godlike powers. As Gary grows extra harmful and merciless, Kirk should weigh his love for his pal towards his responsibility to his crew. The state of affairs instantly establishes the dynamic between Kirk and Spock (compassionate chief versus his coldly sensible advisor), although Spock’s common debate companion, the emotionally pushed Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), wouldn’t seem till Trek was ordered to sequence.

The place No Man Has Gone Earlier than is rather less enjoyable and colourful than the episodes that adopted, with a tone extra intently resembling heady 1950s sci-fi movies like Forbidden Planet or The Day the Earth Stood Nonetheless. In a method, it’s the basic Trek episode that feels essentially the most like Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology; It’s talky, intentionally paced, just a bit bit sterile. In The place No Man Has Gone Earlier than, the galaxy just isn’t solely wondrous, but in addition eerie and unsettling. Had this been the tone the sequence caught with, it may not have change into a world sensation, however as a single episode, it stands out as one of many best.

2. The Metropolis on the Fringe of Perpetually (season 1, episode 29)

To some Trekkies, rating The Metropolis on the Fringe of Perpetually wherever however at No. 1 is unthinkable. This time journey story – written by sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison after which closely revised by Trek story editor D.C. Fontana — received Star Trek its first Hugo Award, and is extensively thought of to be the best hour within the historical past of the sequence, if not the franchise as a complete. The episode’s legendary standing is well-deserved, however we don’t fairly have the center to declare it the last word Star Trek episode, on account of how little of it takes place within the 23rd century or aboard the Starship Enterprise. The Metropolis on the Fringe of Perpetually is an outlier, and as such, naturally stands aside from the pack, giving it an edge in any dialog about Star Trek. Its placement right here at No. 2 is form of a counter to that benefit.

Make no mistake, nonetheless — regardless of principally being set in New York within the yr 1930, Metropolis on the Edge is Star Trek to its core. Despatched again in time to right an unintentional alteration of Earth’s historical past, Kirk and Spock take up residence in a homeless shelter run by idealistic philanthropist Edith Keeler (visitor star Joan Collins). Keeler seems to be the important thing historic determine whose future should be fulfilled, however there’s an issue — Kirk has fallen in love together with her. This romance complicates the mission, as Kirk and Spock are confronted with a grave ethical dilemma with their total actuality hanging within the stability. Keeler is a visionary who believes within the lovely future that Kirk calls house. However, to ensure that that future to exist, should one thing horrible be allowed to occur in her current? It’s an emotionally gripping story that, if it had been advised on a contemporary tv present, would have modified its characters perpetually.

1. Steadiness of Terror (season 1, episode 15)

Star Trek is constructed on a central contradiction. It’s an journey sequence about officers in a fleet that we’re advised, unconvincingly, just isn’t a navy group, aboard a vessel that carries sufficient firepower to demolish a continent. It’s a present about peace wherein issues have a behavior of blowing up. To reconcile this cognitive dissonance, one want solely look to this key episode of The Unique Sequence, Steadiness of Terror. On this early chapter, the Enterprise witnesses an Earth base being destroyed by an outdated enemy, the Romulan Empire. The Romulan ship has the flexibility to change into invisible each to scanners and the bare eye, and makes an attempt to flee to its personal aspect of the impartial zone between their two territories earlier than it may be apprehended.

The Enterprise is ordered to seize or destroy the Romulans earlier than they make it house. Whether or not or not they succeed, there could also be battle. Kirk has his orders, and as we quickly uncover, so does the Romulan commander (visitor star Mark Lenard), who isn’t any happier about this flip of occasions than Kirk is. All through the episode, we minimize backwards and forwards between the motion on the Enterprise and aboard the Romulan vessel, as two eager navy strategists try to outmaneuver one another and keep alive, each locked in a battle they’d somewhat had by no means begun.

Steadiness of Terror is a sci-fi twist on a submarine battle, however greater than that, it’s a commentary on battle, the rivalries between nations, and the injuries and prejudices they create. The Enterprise isn’t loaded with photon torpedoes as a result of Starfleet is itching for a battle — it’s armed as a result of generally it needs to be, and when Kirk and his crew trip into battle, there’s nothing wonderful about it. On the opposite aspect of any battle is an individual or individuals who have their very own mission, their very own values, and even perhaps their very own reservations about preventing. It’s not potential to keep away from each battle, to preempt each battle with diplomacy. However when blood is shed, there isn’t any victory and there are not any winners. There may be tragedy, and there are survivors. And, lastly, there’s the hope that the following time these two nations conflict, they’ll be slightly extra prepared to speak to 1 one other.

Editors’ Suggestions