It’s a little crazy that “Arena” is in the top ten. I think he goes a tad overboard on the TOS love. “Mirror, Mirror” being in the top ten is kind of surprising, though it is top-notch.
Nitpick: “Balance of Terror” was based on The Enemy Below with Robert Mitchum and Kurt Jurgens, not Run Silent, Run Deep with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster.
I wonder if it has ever been officially broadcast. Roddenberry showed it when he went around speaking at colleges in the mid-70s (that and the blooper reel)
Anyhow, this list represents an amazing amount of work. (I’ve only read the bottom 200 and the top 100 so far.) Doomsday Machine is too far down for me (especially the remastered version) but this guy needs a Federation Medal for even watching all of them. (The Animated series is included also, btw.)
Oh, and the ads on the page are reasonably SFW.
I saw it then (he only had a B&W print of it; the original color negatives were at that time presumed lost), and I’m sure I’ve seen it since (in color), so it must have been broadcast at some point, probably on Sy-Fy or Space.
(Actually, Roddenberry spoke in St Paul in February of '86, IIRC; he dropped hints then that Star Trek was going to come back “in one form or another.”)
Four whole seasons of TNG, random episodes throughout all the other series…yes, there are a WHOLE LOT of episodes worse than Spock’s Brain, which isn’t even the worst of TOS (Turnabout Intruder and The Omega Glory are both far worse, just off the top of my head - TOG getting bonus shit points for wasting a great premise by pairing it with a terrible and, frankly, offensive secondary premise.)…it’s actually quite entertaining.
I tried to watch Run Silent, Run Deep a while back, but it’s more of a soap opera than a sub movie. “Balance of Terror” was a sub movie, as well as being The Enemy Below Goes to Outer Space.
What, no “I, Borg” in the top 10, let alone the top 100? Psh.
Yup, it was first broadcast on November 27, 1988 as part of a Star Trek retrospective hosted by Patrick Stewart. I believe it was syndicated, as ST:TNG was originally run in first-run syndication. It was also broadcast on UPN in 1996 as part of the promotion for ST:First Contact. In fact, I’ve only seen it on TV. I don’t have it on home video.
second from the bottom:
- “And the Children Shall Lead,” The Original Series, Season 3
So far, I like this list. This is the first Star Trek episode I watched, when I was about 10, and I disliked it so much it was years before I saw another episode. There are lots of great episodes. This isn’t one of them.
Here are some of the misses:
- “Spectre of the Gun,” The Original Series, Season 3
“The Enterprise has to reenact the Gunfight at the OK Corral. On the world’s flimsiest set. Spock gives everyone a group mind-meld, which is a little progressive, I suppose”
WHAT? That ep is considered to be one of the best of season 3. Very Twilight Zonish.
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“Valiant,” Deep Space Nine, Season 6
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“Jetrel,” Voyager, Season 1
“Neelix, the nicest guy in the galaxy, has to deal with a new guy on the ship — the scientist whose superweapon was used (by others, granted) to kill his family. What’s a Talaxian to do?”
Pssh. A very decent episode.
- “The Sound of Her Voice,” Deep Space Nine, Season 6
“The Defiant chats with a stranded captain, but time dilation is really in charge here. A TNG retread on DS9 but still a neat idea.”
That’s insanely low. That’s #150 at worst.
- “Death Wish,” Voyager, Season 2
“Hey, it’s Q! And Janeway isn’t down on her knees begging him to snap his fingers and send them home? Instead she’s arguing about the right-to-die in a mock trial. Sometimes Janeway misses the point”
OKAY we’re done here. That’s a fantastic episode.
I only look at Playboy for the photos.
Thanks for that. I could tolerate it being low in the list (some people hate the idea that the Q would treat Starfleet as equals in any sense), but the complaint is facile. Did the author understand the character of Q at all? He’s not some magical genie. You cannot get him to do what you want.
A question not quite worthy of a separate thread, but anyway:
What was the 1st Trek episode that you ever watched?
Mine was Changeling, 1973, when I was in New Hampshire for my grandfather’s funeral. And I was instantly hooked.
I love “Death Wish,” but I also wondered by Janeway didn’t try harder to get Q to send them home (a question that got harder to answer in every other episode that Q showed up on Voyager asking for a favor), especially since Q ended up reconnecting with his rebellious side and helping Quinn commit suicide. Sending Voyager back home wouldn’t have been noticed by the Continuum after that, and it would have taken Q literally zero effort: even the finger snap is just theatrics.
As to the list, I disagree with a lot of the choices, but it is impressive and the author is obviously quite knowledgable. The biggest disagreement I have is his strange abhorrence of Data’s Sherlock Holmes obsession and the associated episodes. I love those. But then I’m a big Sherlockian too.
“The Doomsday Machine,” Christmas Day 1969. And yeah, I was hooked too. My favorite episodes have always been Gene Coon ones.
“Devil in the Dark” - I don’t recall the year - but I was young, it was dark - and that was good stuff.
“The Lights of Zetar”, 1969. (In color!)
Arguably, that makes it the lowest-ranked actual episode – the very bottom spot is the “Shades of Grey” TNG clip show.
The first episode I ever saw was back in highschool: Yesterday’s Enterprise, at a (new group of) friend’s house, possibly (probably) during its first airing. I had no idea what I was watching, but I loved it.
I think the logic is that, whether or not the episode eventually actually aired, it is not officially a part of any series. Technically, it’s just a pilot that the network didn’t pick up.