Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of “what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek,” the suggestions are pretty predictable - your “best” episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak.
I like to take a different approach, trying to find episodes that I feel are most representative of the series - the “average” Star Trek episode. If you show someone the “best,” there’s nowhere to go but down, and it can set someone up for disappointment.
In the case of Star Trek, I actually find this pretty difficult, and I don’t think I’ve come up with any that I feel are really good answers, so I’m taking it to the crowd: what are the most representative episodes of Star Trek.
To me, these are the boxes that probably need to be ticked:
- Enjoyable (obviously).
- A conventional structure that doesn’t deviate from the norm too much - this is a flexible concept, but I think it excludes things like “Darmok,” or “Tapestry,” or “In the Pale Moonlight,” which are not really conventional.
- Any series is fair game.
What do you think? What are some “normal” Star Trek episodes that would serve as good representation of what the franchise usually is?
Just don’t show them “Sub Rosa”, there’s no nudity at all.
Sometimes I think Star Trek did Sub Rosa just to prove they didn’t need to include their usual copius amounts of nudity in order to create something extremely erotic.
It’s like the story about how Hitchcock didn’t give “The Birds” a soundtrack after someone said his movies were only scary because of the music.
I’m gonna have to go with “Inner Light” from TNG
It has so many typical star trek things, but it does lack a few things here and there.
It’s always my go-to when someone wants an episode recommendation to see if they’ll like the show.
This is a great question. I like to recommend Data’s Day for newbies because he sort of goes around and introduces every character, but it’s a pretty unconventional episode.
I think I would go with “Doomsday Machine”!
That said, I also think Darmok would be a good fit too, the concept itself is unique in that as far as I know it’s the first it was used in science fiction, but the manner in which the concept is presented “Enterprise crew encounters a problem that can’t be solved with guns or technology” is pretty darn representative.
Yeah, I called “Darmok” unconventional because of the two-actor stage play aspect of it, but it’s a borderline case. I’ll allow it.
I don’t watch Star Trek, but I want to pitch in that the only episode I’ve ever seen is Trouble With Tribbles and I enjoyed it.
I wanna say “the corbomite maneuver” from TOS. I think it’s one of the best episodes of all, but most people don’t so i think it’s okay from the its all downhill perspective. It has everything: Kirk mentoring, an extremely powerful alien of the week, solving problems without fighting, but still tense situations. Such a great and representative episode.
From TNG maybe First Contact. Good intro episode as you get intro to the federation through the eyes of an alien of the week. The alien-chasing woman may be not a good thing to show depending on the person you’re showing it to, though.
For DS9, in the hands of the prophets. Doesn’t require much backstory unlike a lot of DS9, great ep, classic ethical debate/social commentary, and the majesty that is Vedek Winn.
For Voyager maybe distant origin. Great ep, doesn’t need much backstory, also great commentary on society
