# Which Original Star Trek Eps are 'must watch'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052 "2013-05-22T18:52:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/161 "2013-05-29T21:18:02Z")
“The Way to Eden” also has Spock rocking out with the space hippies, playing his doohicky. Vulcan autoharp. And Chekov is a stick-in-the-mud. That’s right, the Beatle-haired Monkee wanna-be is the rule stickler. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/162 "2013-05-29T21:34:13Z")
I saw TOS in syndication and had suitably low expectations. Mostly speaking, I’d opine that the worst Star Trek was superior to the best of Maude, Alice, Sanford And Son, Rhoda, Laverne & Shirley, Green Acres, Chico And The Man etc. Or at any rate a much better gamble.\* Even the weak episodes of Star Trek are at least diverting. - I suppose this hypothesis could be tested with an old edition of TV Guide. How often would it make sense to watch something other than Star Trek, assuming you only had access to broadcast TV? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/163 "2013-05-29T21:36:56Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > _Space Seed,_ because it sets up _The Wrath of Khan._ By the same token, “The Changeling” because it sets up _ST: The Motion Picture_. I’m not suggesting that’s a really good movie, but like the original series episodes any one of the films is worth watching at least once. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky_the_Wonder_Spirit)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/164 "2013-05-29T21:48:26Z")
I watched “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”. Everything to do with the half-naked sex-bot was creepy. Everything to do with [Lurch in a flowered pink nightie](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/Sir_Lance/Robots25.jpg) was hilarious. Also, there was [this stalactite](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120917043749/memoryalpha/en/images/6/62/Kirk%27s_stalactite.jpg) … :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/165 "2013-05-29T22:03:02Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > And lets all give a hand to “Mudd’s Women” for being the first episode I found to be personally offensive!\* And Mudd is a recurring character? Oh, goody. > > “Squire of Gothos” was fun, though. No more goofy than your average Next Generation ‘Q’ episode. > > \*A woman’s value isn’t in her looks! That’s shallow! I woman’s _real_ value is her ability to wash your dishes, clean your house, and agree to live with you on your hellacious doom planet after knowing you for 20 minutes, 19 of which you spent berating her! But that’s a happy ending because we all learned a valuable lesson about confidence and inner beauty. Regardless, the one later Mudd episode “I, Mudd” is one of the better ones on the funnier side. In a way it’s like “Squire of Gothos”, but without the deus ex machina resolution given that he’s a human being. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/166 "2013-05-29T23:11:23Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > I watched “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”. Everything to do with the half-naked sex-bot was creepy. Everything to do with [Lurch in a flowered pink nightie](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y28/Sir_Lance/Robots25.jpg) was hilarious. Also, there was [this stalactite](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120917043749/memoryalpha/en/images/6/62/Kirk%27s_stalactite.jpg) … :dubious: I think Andrea was supposed to be creepy. It was the one time in the series in which a character had a 20th-century reaction to an underdressed woman. Chapel quite realistically doesn’t buy for a moment that Roger Corby didn’t build and dress Andrea as he did with fucking in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Swamp\_Adder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Swamp\_Adder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swamp_Adder)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/167 "2013-05-29T23:48:26Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > It also provided one of the Blooper Reel’s best moments: Shatner’s “Have no fear … SARGON is here!” > > Oh, I really hope that’s on Youtube. [It is](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAkGfJY05k). ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/168 "2013-05-30T00:14:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Don’t listen to **kenobi**. “The Way To Eden” is a must-watch just for the camp entertainment value of beatniks in space. - herbert - ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/169 "2013-05-30T00:59:12Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > We reach! > > Also need to see the overweight spaceghost leading the kiddoes astray in And The Children Shall Lead Melvin Belli, who reprises this role in **Gimme Shelter**. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky_the_Wonder_Spirit)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/170 "2013-05-30T19:34:18Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > Also need to see the overweight spaceghost leading the kiddoes astray in And The Children Shall Lead That was _horrible_. You are bad and you should feel bad. > [@Irishman](#): > > And Chekov is a stick-in-the-mud. That’s right, the Beatle-haired Monkee wanna-be is the rule stickler. I get the distinct impression that Chekov is just an idiot. “Amok Time” and “The Doomsday Machine” were both certifiably awesome. “Doomsday” might be my favorite episode I’ve seen, so far. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/171 "2013-06-01T01:12:26Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > I saw TOS in syndication and had suitably low expectations. Mostly speaking, I’d opine that the worst Star Trek was superior to the best of Maude, Alice, Sanford And Son, Rhoda, Laverne & Shirley, Green Acres, Chico And The Man etc. Or at any rate a much better gamble.\* Even the weak episodes of Star Trek are at least diverting. > > - I suppose this hypothesis could be tested with an old edition of TV Guide. How often would it make sense to watch something other than Star Trek, assuming you only had access to broadcast TV? The alternatives: 1966: Tammy Grimes Show and Bewitched on ABC, My Three Sons and the CBS Thursday Night Movie on CBS. 1967: Hondo on ABC, Gomer Pyle and the CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. 1968: Judd for the Defense on ABC, CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. Seemed like a no-brainer to me. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/172 "2013-06-01T01:15:19Z")
Oooooooooh, Hondo… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/173 "2013-06-01T02:25:05Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > “Doomsday” might be my favorite episode I’ve seen, so far. It’s both a really good story, and a clinic in overacting (a TOS staple). Without the CGI improvements, it had even more Star Trek charm - the gray bugle corn chip looked even dumber, and the relative sizes of it, an Enterprise-class ship, and a shuttlecraft were messed up throughout the episode. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/174 "2013-06-01T02:51:24Z")
> [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](#): > > That was _horrible_. You are bad and you should feel bad. _…far away, far to see, friendly angel come to me._ I did that from memory. Some things from my youth just. won’t. die. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/175 "2013-06-01T03:54:51Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > _…far away, far to see, friendly angel come to me._ > > I did that from memory. Some things from my youth just. won’t. die. > > 😛 I believe it was “far to sea.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/176 "2013-06-01T03:57:29Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > The alternatives: > > 1966: Tammy Grimes Show and Bewitched on ABC, My Three Sons and the CBS Thursday Night Movie on CBS. > > 1967: Hondo on ABC, Gomer Pyle and the CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. > > 1968: Judd for the Defense on ABC, CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. > > Seemed like a no-brainer to me. Ah, but Tammy Grimes was cancelled after a month (the first show to bite the big one that season) and replaced by the nighttime version of “The Dating Game”! I remember it well… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/177 "2013-06-01T04:03:17Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > The alternatives: > > 1966: Tammy Grimes Show and Bewitched on ABC, My Three Sons and the CBS Thursday Night Movie on CBS. > > 1967: Hondo on ABC, Gomer Pyle and the CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. > > 1968: Judd for the Defense on ABC, CBS Friday Night Movie on CBS. > > Seemed like a no-brainer to me. Just remembered that Alexander “Sandy” Courage wrote the themes for both _ **ST:** _\*\*\* TOS \*\*\*and _ **Judd** _. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/178 "2013-06-01T04:38:52Z")
Ahh, [But did he write the lyrics?](http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/trek.asp) –shudder– ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/179 "2013-06-01T05:02:06Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe it was “far to sea.” Well, that’d make sense too. Or more, even :). Of course I never saw it written, I just remembered the episode which I probably last saw _over 30 years ago_. Though to be fair I imagine I saw it 4-8 times when I was a youngster - Star Trek reruns were quality TV back then. Beat _Three’s Company_, anyway. I actually went to [Space-Con #2](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Space-Con_%28Star_Trek_and_Science_Fiction_convention%29#Space-Con_2) ( unless it was #6, but I think #2 )when I was about eight and a half in 1976, though my ten-year old step-brother was the real ST geek. He had a six-foot poster of Mr. Spock in his bedroom. This thread is actually making me think I should fire up Netflix and revisit some of TOS. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052/180 "2013-06-01T05:24:47Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe it was “far to sea.” I always thought it was “for to see”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-original-star-trek-eps-are-must-watch/659052.md?page=10)