What Is Your Favourite Star Trek TOS Episode?

[Alum Ladd]

What is your favourite, most memorable or most iconic Star Trek original series episode?

I have several, but the one the sticks out in my young mind was "The Doomsday Machine" (Ep 6, 2nd Season, first broadcast 20th October 1967)

In the UK we got them a year or so later, so I recall seeing this around 1969-70.

To me it just sums up all that was great about TOS. Great suspense, some iconic lines, a wonderful space battle and a classic ending. Also it brings out some of the best characterisations of Spock, Kirk, Bones and Scott. There are many other I love but this seems to stick out in my memory.

Also I love the fact that Commodore Decker has not shaved. A nice little touch.

What's yours?

 

[brucered]

My wife is the Star Trek fan in our house. So when we did watch together or I see this one, I always tune in.

 

[cranewarrior]

It has to be "The Trouble with Tribbles".

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

Simon:

Mine and in my opinion 'the best' (which I love watching over and over again on MeTV), was the ""The Menagerie"...Star Trek Season 1: Episodes 11 & 12 (Parts I & II),...

.

"The Cage is the first pilot episode of the American television series Star Trek. It was completed on January 22, 1965 (with a copyright date of 1964). The episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and directed by Robert Butler. It was rejected by NBC in February 1965, and the network ordered another pilot episode, which became "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

[However] Much of the original footage from "The Cage" was later incorporated into the season 1[,] two-part episode "The Menagerie" (1966); however, "The Cage" was first released to the public on VHS in 1986, with a special introduction by Gene Roddenberry, as a hybrid of the color footage that was used in "The Menagerie" and black and white footage which was not used in "The Menagerie". It was not broadcast on television in its complete all-color form until 1988".

Works Cited: "The_Menagerie" - Star_Trek:_The_Original Series (TOS)

"But we're not here, neither of us. We're in a menagerie, a cage". CPT Christoper Pike

 

[Black Adder]

"The Doomsday Machine" is my favorite.

Others - in no particular order...

"The Immunity Syndome"
"Space Seed"
"Balance of Terror"
"The Corbomite Maneuver"
"Spectre of the Gun"
"Court Martial"
"Amok Time"
"Wolf in the Fold"
"Requiem for Methusalah"
"The Tholian Web"
"Let that be your Last Battlefield"

 

[EclipseRedRing]

My favourite is "The Paradise Syndrome" where Kirk lives among a people who are nased on native Americans and marries Miramanee. The script is wonderful - "the sooner our happiness together begins, the longer it will last", but the ending is tragic - "each kiss is as the first". It is surprisingly moving, every time I watch it.

 

[Sideburns]

It has to be "The Trouble with Tribbles".

You may not know this, but the last few tribbles were dropped onto Shatner's head by David Gerrold. He was also the person who decided that Kirk's middle name was Tiberius, and made Shatner say, "James Tiberius Kirk" three different times in the episode.

 

[Goblin]

Asking the real questions.

And I thoroughly approve of your answer. When I saw the title of the thread I thought, "It's The Doomsday Machine! I shall score many nerd points by going into great detail as to why!"

Well, it turns out that I don't need to.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" would also get a vote from me as one of the best TOS episodes.

I am a big Trek fan and rewatch TOS through to Voyager almost continuously. Unfortunately, I am one of those old curmudgeons who simply can't enjoy any of the new Star Trek shows. I keep trying whenever they release a new one, but the writing is so terrible. It's a fundamentally different show now and seems to be aimed more at kids than at nerds of all ages. Thankully, there's still hundreds of episodes of classic Trek to enjoy.

 

[Quaznoid]

The Doomsday Machine
Space Seed
The Menagerie
The Ultimate Computer

 

[Sideburns]

One of my favorites is "Who Mourns for Apollo?" partially because it has one of my favorite lines. When Apollo introduces himself with a long series of titles, Chekov responds with, "And Czar of all the Russias."

 

[Chef455]

"A Piece of the Action"... Tommy guns, Kirk drives a car, AND the greatest card game ever made up - Fizzbin.

 

[Bungo Pete]

City on The Edge of Forever (time travel always interests me)
Doomsday Machine (William Windom did an amazing job with this, and his "Queeg-like" manipulation of the floppy disks is inspired)

 

[ZJ68]

The Devil in the Dark. Honorable mention to The Omega Glory.

 

[Columbo]

One not mentioned for who was in it, and a fun one, too: Assignment: Earth. Gary Seven, the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo era, and a very young Terri Garr make that one special to me. Always like watching that one.

I also enjoy Balance of Terror and The Immunity Syndrome. I like to fall asleep to the latter one for some reason. Must be the psychedelics of that giant amoeba filling the screen.

Arena ... Metamorphosis (with Glenn Corbett) ... Space Seed ... Journey To Babel ...

And anything with Harry Mudd. Although Stanley Adams in Trouble With Tribbles gives him a solid run for the money.

But most all the TOS episodes remain entertaining to the present day. TOS is still the best in my book. There is only one Kirk.

In remastered 1080p, it blows away what I remembered when it aired live. But it was quite a show for the then-special color TV era of 1966. Best watched with a lava lamp nearby.

 

[DrStrange]

One not mentioned for who was in it, and a fun one, too: Assignment: Earth. Gary Seven, the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo era, and a very young Terri Garr make that one special to me. Always like watching that one.

I also enjoy Balance of Terror and The Immunity Syndrome. I like to fall asleep to the latter one for some reason. Must be the psychedelics of that giant amoeba filling the screen.

Arena ... Metamorphosis (with Glenn Corbett) ... Space Seed ... Journey To Babel ...

And anything with Harry Mudd. Although Stanley Adams in Trouble With Tribbles gives him a solid run for the money.

But most all the TOS episodes remain entertaining to the present day. TOS is still the best in my book. There is only one Kirk.

In remastered 1080p, it blows away what I remembered when it aired live. But it was quite a show for the then-special color TV era of 1966. Best watched with a lava lamp nearby.

Compared to everything that followed TOS,
they were all my favorite episodes.

 

[luvmysuper]

It has to be "The Trouble with Tribbles".

That's probably my favorite as well.
You have to watch the amazing job they did on Deep Space 9 with the episode titled "Trials and Tribble-ations", interspersing DS9 action into the original TOS episode. They actually raise the Klingon malformed head thing with Worf. Hilarious!
Masterful work!

 

[Columbo]

Even after all these years, the love of TOS continues for many. It's safe to say its fanbase now spans many generations.

The original 11' studio model of the Enterprise, used to create all those 'space scenes' in every episode, was restored just a few years ago by the National Air and Space Museum.

Star Trek Starship Enterprise Studio Model

In order to restore the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 studio model from the television show Star Trek, the Museum undertook an almost two year long project that included extensive research and meticulous conservation efforts.

airandspace.si.edu

 

[ZJ68]

There is only one Kirk.

 

[Lord NSIC]

"The Trouble With Tribbles," and the episode where the guy in the red uniform shirt dies early into the episode...