An episode that outlines how the Q became the Q. since they started out as mortals.
Same with the borg. An episode about the original borg and how they became the borg we know now.
One where there was a race like the Q billions of years ago. Godlike beings who mastered technology. But then they went extinct and they detail why/how.
OK, my mistake. Yeah, the Klingons did develop the tribble predator. Anyway, the Klingons eventually solved the tribble problem by blowing up their planet.
I am surprised they never did an episode where someone went nuts and was convinced they were trapped in a Holodeck even though they weren’t. It seems that would be the logical extension of repeated Holodeck usage.
You might like the novel Q-Squared. The audiobook is read by de Lancie himself. (I believe it modified the text somewhat, making it first person when appropriate). In it, we learn that Trelane is in fact a young Q, albeit, not our Q. Just a member of the species.
I don’t want to spoil, but I will say that the Squire of Gothos plays a major part. But this in a TNG era book, so he’s not quite the same fool he was before.
I’d like to see an episode where Kirk encounters Jason Nesmith.
Do they still sing songs of the great tribble hunt?
My memory needed dusting off on this one too. There were indeed predators on their home planet:
JONES: Captain Kirk, I’m mystified at your tone of voice. I’ve done nothing to warrant such severe treatment.
KIRK: Oh, really?
SPOCK: Surely you must have realised what would happen if you removed the tribbles from their predator-filled environment into an environment where their natural multiplicative proclivities would have no restraining factors.
JONES: Of course. What did you say?
SPOCK: By removing the tribbles from their natural habitat, you have, so to speak, removed the cork from the bottle and allowed the genie to escape.
JONES: If by that, you mean do they breed quickly? Of course, that’s how I maintain my stock. Breeding animals is not against regulations, only breeding dangerous ones. And tribbles are not dangerous.
KIRK: Just incredibly prolific.
Which makes me wonder why the Klingons had to develop their own. Maybe the native ones were unsuited for space travel? 
The crew were being mind controlled by a malevolent alien being. The transporter chief probably did check to see if a planet was at the other end of the transporter beam, as per Standard Operating Procedures; the instruments all said WARNING: HARD VACUUM AT COORDINATES ENTERED–FULL LIFE-SUPPORT EQUIPMENT REQUIRED FOR ALL PERSONNEL AT THAT LOCATION, but the transporter chief saw NOMINAL M-CLASS ENVIRONMENT AT COORDINATES ENTERED on his instrument panel and blithely pulled the “Energize” lever.
I’m sure that’s what he said at the inquest. But Kirk had no trouble seeing they were at speed, once he checked.
Its funny how current politics and cultural tones can shape the feasibility of an episode.
Years ago, I thought of an idea…our heroes visit a planet for whatever reason, the inhabitants are nice as can be. Very pleasant, intelligent humanoids…but they keep slaves. Now…do we make that the crux of the episode? (1) Our heroes berate them some and the humonoids get belligerant defending there way of life? NOOOO!!..thats been done to death. They just nod and go on about being nice as they always have been saying “Its our way of life. Now how can we help you?” Or do we have our heroes ignore that aspect? (2)
(1) Years ago, I didn’t think this was a ‘problematic’ episode. But man, do that today and people would flip their shit. “STAR TREK IS SAYING THERE ARE VERY NICE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES!!!” But if you make it the crux of the ep…thats ham-fisted as hell. And the exact kind of thing the PD is supposed to stop. In fact, I would welcome a crew member saying “You keep…slaves???” and the commanding officer saying “Ensign…” in a rebukeful tone as if to say shut it.
(2) Funny enough I can think of one and maybe two where thats exactly what they did. Bread and Circuses of course. But in that dumb dumb dumb Enterprise episode about the PD…the “Race that isnt at a genetic dead end” SEEMED to be servants of the more advanced race. And not an eyebrow was raised about that aspect.
We right now have several species enslaved. We really should be running into that kind of thing a lot.
TOS-era had proposed an episode (written by DC Fontana, IIRC) where the Enterprise come across a reverse-earth planet, where the white folk are enslaved and the black people are in charge. It was supposed to feature McCoy and Uhura for maximum effect. I don’t think they could make it work*, and it really might have been too much in the 60s. You could probably make it now, though, but it might be too simplistic.
*Might have been the genesis for Let That Be Your Last battlefield
The infamous TNG episode “Code of Honor” had a planet ruled by blacks, and the Grand Poobah demanded Picard hand over one of the three white female leads for his harem. For reasons I don’t fully understand, this one is widely considered to be “racist.”
I’d’ve thought all the SJWs out there would be delighted ***Trek ***finally broke with the long-standing tradition of planets populated mainly by light-skinned aliens, but nooooooooo! This was definitely a case of “damned if you don’t, damned if you do.”
And the Big Kahuna wasn’t exactly presented with a wide selection of babes, either. (I would have gone with the redhead instead of the blonde, but there’s no accounting for taste).
You had me until your use of “SJW”. SJWs didn’t exist in 1987. We hated that episode at the time honestly, because it was condescending, insulting, and above all, stupid.
Just like their “gay” episode The Outcast, which managed to be offensive to everybody. Just because they done it, doesn’t mean they done it good.
Oho, yes they did! Maybe they were called something else then, but they’ve been around longer and in greater numbers than I ever care to remember. :mad:
Like most of the awful first season, the episode was indeed stupid, but I maintain it can be considered “racist” only if you view it in the context of “Where’s all the white women?” I highly doubt there would such indignant outrage if El Caudillo had demanded a dark-skinned woman or even one from another species (like Dr Selar).
Sure that wasn’t Romulans? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216901.The_Romulan_Stratagem
Emphasis mine. You’d like the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy of novels; we do find out about the origins of the Borg. And the Borg comes to destroy everybody.
Well, technically, such people never existed, as SJW is merely a term of derision, and doesn’t actually describe any specific beliefs. But, presumably, you are using it the way it used today to imply some minority of people on the far left who get upset about everything and don’t even know what minorities really think.
But that isn’t the case here. “Code of Honor” was condemned as racist by nearly everyone. It wasn’t even just viewers: people in production hated it. The director, who made them all black in the first place, was fired halfway through. Worf does not appear in the episode, because Michael Dorn considered it too racist.
You just are apparently unaware of all the racist tropes it invokes. It’s not just the black chief kidnapping the white woman because he was obsessed with her, though that is part of it. The entire aesthetic is that of 1940s racist depictions of African tribes. The actors even have the East African accent–something Star Trek didn’t do.
The all-white away team have to figure out a way to deal with the savage black people, while respecting their “way of life.” Tar even has to admit she finds something attractive about the animalistic nature of the man.
The idea that some sort of barrier was broken is ridiculous. For one thing, there is the aforementioned Worf, a black actor playing a Klingon, a race that was, by the TNG era, now always portrayed as black. If, for some reason, you needed a species that was all one race, you already had one–not that making a race all into aliens is all that great.
But, more importantly, no one was clamoring for an all black race of aliens. That’s like saying you want an all female race of aliens. Black people have been fighting against segregation, not for it.
Of course, if they just happened to be black but otherwise were treated well, like the Klingons, I don’t think anyone would have objected. It was using the old racist stereotypes. I can imagine that a lot of people were unaware of them–I was when I first watched the episode. But now that I know about the stereotypes, it’s so obviously racist, it’s ridiculous anyone tries to argue otherwise.
I believe you are an SFDebris fan. Have you watched his three-part review of the episode? While it was not remotely the only flaw he discusses, even he talks about how racist it is. And he’s about as far from an SJW as you can get without actually becoming a racist.
Kirk was not under the spell of Gargan. Remember the screen on the bridge showed normal space, but when Sulu looked at it, it either displayed the planet or a bunch of swords and daggers coming at the Enterprise.
It apparently didn’t occur to anybody that something was wrong until they tried to beam up* the two redshirts that had been left on the planet earlier.** Presumably they thought they had a transporter lock-on and everybody was where they were supposed to be, until it turned out that, oops.
*You’d think it would be a good idea to call first to make sure they weren’t suddenly beamed up while taking a dump or whatever.
**Nobody mentions going back for them, so I hope the deceased scientists were well-stocked with provisions.
In Voyager, Seven rescues the Borg kids and proceeds to help them. There was a Borg infant in that Ep. I want know what happened to it. I think I’ve seen every episode multible times, no Baby. We need to know.