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?
I think VOY - Counterpoint might fit the bill.
Reasons:
- It’s got a double double-cross plot with pretty high stakes.
- It’s traditional in the “alien of the week” format.
- Janeway and Inspector Kashyk have excellent chemistry
- Hefty abuse of the pattern buffer
- Basically a self-contained episode that’s largely confined to the ship
Oh wow, that’s probably my favorite VOY episode, it’s really great without being gimmicky - good pick!
Another good VOY episode might be “The Void” - a nice little diplomatic episode with a dash of action.
Yeah, same. I felt bad recommending it as “average” episode, but it checks all the other boxes. Still, it’s a fun, easy episode to just drop into without needing any background info besides “They’re on a long journey home, and then this happens”.
“The Void” is definitely a solid choice, too. Teamwork and Federation principles save the day, a little action, and a first contact.
I think we need to move past the idea that “average” equates to “bad” - by definition, most episodes are going to be pretty average, and that’s okay!
My first thought whenever the topic of what episode a person should to introduce Trek to someone comes up is “The Measure of a Man”. Though perhaps a courtroom drama, while certainly something Trek dabbles with on multiple occasions, is not typical enough to fall under the umbrella of conventional.
Maybe something like “Children of the Comet” from season one of SNW. There’s a strange mystery that’s going to spell disaster for a pre-warp civilization, an alien of the week antagonist whom the Enterprise crew needs to figure out how to deal with without getting into a fight, and everything’s neatly wrapped up by the end. The biggest mark against it would be the subplot where Pike’s dealing with the knowledge that he’s going to end up in a beep chair.
I think a little serialization can be a good thing, especially in a series like SNW, where it’s baked into the premise.
I don’t disagree, but I do believe that when we think about what Star Trek is, what it boils down to is an episodic procedural, despite how serialized it can be at times.
Yeah, and that really underlines the point that the “representative” episode of each series probably has very different properties.
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
Another bonus of showing them “Corbomite” first is that they won’t be wondering what the hell the deal is with that freaky face thing at the end of the closing credits when watching other episodes.
I picked “Doomsday Machine” but Corbomite Maneuver is also really good. Classic in multiple senses of the word.
I really like The Drumhead from TNG. It establishes the nature of Star Trek at its most essential. It’s mostly a talking episode, although there’s some action with an explosion, which is perfectly average to me. It gives you a feel of the dynamics of some of the politics in the universe, which I think is a great way to get people involved. It’s got one one of those great Picard speeches that puts a badmiral in their place, solving the problem non-violently. It’s also a great parallel to any slippery slope security tightening after a major event happens, which is basically always a timeless message of avoiding overreaching authoritarianism at all costs.
Another TNG one I’d pick is probably The Ensigns of Command. It’s another example of an episode that’s mostly talking, a little bit of action, with a non-violent resolution. It’s fun watching Picard come up with inane legal bullshit to deal with the very strictly by the books alien species, satisfying their requirements in a way that meets his agenda while also being within the rules.
Honestly, I could rationalize different episodes all day, but since those were the first two that came to mind, I’ll just leave them at that.
I think I’d suggest a planet-of-the-week episode. From TOS, “This Side of Paradise” or “A Taste of Armageddon.” From TNG, maybe “Who Watches the Watchers” or “Up the Long Ladder.”
I absolutely love “who watches the watchers”
It’s such a great example of what Picard is about, what makes him a great man, as well as being a great commentary on that inner human struggle we experience on both a personal and social level.
I came here with exactly this episode in mind. I think it is representative in a few ways:
- It involves an alien of the week.
- The alien species is culturally similar to human societies we, as viewers, are familiar with.
- It demonstrates what the Federation is all about, including the Prime Directive, respectfully dealing with less developed civilizations, and solving problems without violence (especially when the problems are your own fault).
- It’s more or less self-contained. Whether this is “representative” is debatable, I guess. I think it’s a big part of Star Trek even though there’s a larger focus on season-long storylines in later series.
“Who Watches the Watchers” is self-contained but you can also show someone “The Drumhead” after they’ve seen it. Beyond that also being a good episode for newbies as suggested elsewhere in these threads, the callbacks to “Who Watches the Watchers” nicely illustrate how threads from one story can keep affecting and enriching the show’s universe.
“Up the Long Ladder.”
You’re choosing violence, and I love it.
I considered suggesting “The Last Outpost”.
Now I want to suggest this trilogy: a private little war, the last outpost, “mugato, gumato”
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.
Ironically, being a comedy episode it’s not very representative!
In this list of suggestions, I wanted to showcase episodes that try to give a good overview of the cast and what they do and the feel of the series they are in. Note that these are what I feel are representative and relatively newbie-friendly, not necessarily the best episodes or even my favourites. So in that context, here are my picks and why:
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TOS: “The Doomsday Machine” - it showcases the Enterprise encountering an alien menace, how the crew and ship works together to defeat it, the strength of the relationship between the central trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy and it’s a great, exciting story to boot, with one of the strongest guest stars they ever had.
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TAS: “Beyond the Farthest Star” - this is one which I felt they could have done for TOS if not for the budget. It feels the closest to a live-action TOS episode.
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TNG: “The Best of Both Worlds” - especially the remastered HD movie cut. There really is no substitute for introducing people to TNG. This is the show firing on all thrusters: suspenseful, thrilling, and truly epic. It’s a cracking good story, pretty self-contained, moves at a steady pace, it has great characterisation and action, and if effective, it should lead to a lot of questions about the broader universe - the Borg, Guinan, Data - you can use as a means to lead newbies to more episodes.
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DS9: “Civil Defence” - this may seem like an odd choice, being a bottle show, but DS9 was always a bit of a bottle show. I like this because it’s strong on character and shows off the relationships between the characters in a crisis situation, and it brings in both Garak and Dukat, whose interactions are always a delight.
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VOY: “The Equinox” - another two-parter, but this shows off the difference between a principled and unprincipled captain and crew, a glimpse into how Janeway and Voyager could have succumbed to the dark side. (very close runner up: “Timeless”, just for an example of how VOY loved to muck with time travel and alternate timelines)
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ENT: “Dead Stop” - a strange space station, Mayweather actually gets something to do (he gets killed), the need for the NX-01 to get repairs in unexplored space, and a genuine horror mystery to solve.
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DIS: “Stormy Weather” - an episode so Star Trek it couldn’t possibly be more unless it put on pointy ears and attended a convention wearing a I GROK SPOCK t-shirt. It’s sciencey, it’s hopeful, it’s philosophical, it has kisses to continuity and even has everyone in the ensemble have a moment. And apart from that it is paced well, suspenseful and thoughtfully written. Well done all around. Honorable mention: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”.
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LD: “wej Duj”- which I would argue is the finest Star Trek episode of the last few years and one of the best ever Star Trek episodes ever for the way it portrays the lower decks of Klingons, Vulcans, Federation and even Pakleds and… well, wait till the end credits. It also introduces fan favorite T’Lyn to the audience.
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SNW: “Memento Mori” - there’s a lot to like about the episode - the submarine warfare conceit in Star Trek space battles has always been a signature so it’s nice to see it crop up again, and you don’t even mind that the correspondence is so blatant because it’s so well executed and the keeps the tension up pretty much throughout the episode.
I’m skipping PIC because that’s not really a show for fresh eyes.
“Civil Defence”
Yeah, I dig it. It’s also very heavy on Bajoran/Cardassian conflict, which I think needs to be in there to be most representative of the series.
Solid list all around!
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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.
Good point! I forgot that it was mostly the two of them on the planet. It is also somewhat unusual in that there is no distinct B-plot. The events that take place in orbit are directly related.
“Darmok” is so far the only Trek episode I’ve shown my spouse, because she wanted to know what the deal was with a t-shirt I had with that episode’s famous line on it. It did the job, she seemed to get into it despite being only vaguely familiar with the show.
Arena.
Great suggestion! Everyone remembers the Gorn, but the Metrons are fairly representative of the incredibly advanced aliens typical of TOS (like the Organians, Thasians, or Providers).
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.
Voyager: One Small Step
It’s one of my top ten favourites, but it’s also a very typical “one off” story.
“Conspiracy”
TNG, The Drumhead. The social commentary aspect of Trek without being too heavy on needing to know the SciFi lore of the series.
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 think ‘The Devil in the Dark’ from the Original Series would be a good option. As would “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” from Strange New Worlds.
