One of the reasons we did the rating system is because people like to rank things. Okay, I like to rank things. We had toyed with fractional warps but in the end, the rating system is less about scientific accuracy than it is about putting episodes in the same general group/pool as each other. Is “Obsession” better than “By Any Other Name”? Well… maybe. But we can at least agree they’re both better than “The Empath.”
You understand.
So let’s see the top tiers. Out of 79 episodes, only eight managed to get both Eugene and my unequivocal admiration. Can you guess which ones?
The winners:
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1×06 | “The Naked Time” |
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1×15 | “The Menagerie, Part I” |
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1×08 | “Balance of Terror” |
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1×24 | “Space Seed” |
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1×28 | “The City on the Edge of Forever” |
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2×05 | “Amok Time” |
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2×13 | “The Trouble With Tribbles” |
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2×22 | “Return to Tomorrow” |
Runners-up:
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2×06 | “The Doomsday Machine“ |
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3×04 | “The Enterprise Incident“ |
Honorable Mentions:
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1×01 | “Where No Man Has Gone Before“ |
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1×16 | “The Menagerie, Part II“ |
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1×14 | “Court Martial“ |
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1×22 | “The Return of the Archons“ |
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1×27 | “Errand of Mercy“ |
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2×10 | “Mirror, Mirror“ |
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2×11 | “The Deadly Years“ |
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3×23 | “All Our Yesterdays“ |
Torie: The strange thing about looking at these episode rankings is that those I would call my favorites–the ones that I keep coming back to–aren’t all on here. I find myself drawn much more strongly to the ones that weren’t perfect. They’re the ones that were so close, and keep nagging at me, making me think, making me reconsider them and want to revisit them to try again. In addition to the titles in the chart, I would add “A Taste of Armageddon” and “The Changeling,” which I still think about from time to time and which still creep me out in fundamental, unshakable ways. Of all the Eden episodes I think that “This Side of Paradise” gives “The Menagerie” a run for its money. I really loved the Shakespearean twist of “The Conscience of the King,” and continue to be challenged by its genocidal main not-quite-villain. “The Enemy Within” strikes me as one of the most bold episodes of the entire series in that it so strongly emphasized compassion as a virtue equal to, if not more important than, courage or bravery. “Charlie X” remains heartbreaking, unfair, and tragic; while “Is There in Truth No Beauty?” is just so original, and beautiful, and inspiring.
And now I’m in the mood for a re-watch.
Eugene: I now see the wisdom in only using whole numbers for our ratings–what a nightmare this list would have been for Torie to compile if we were all over the starchart. It’s not too surprising that the top episodes adhere to so many “best of” lists, but of course this one will serve as the definitive one for all time. I’m so glad we were able to put an end to all the fan debates at long last.
Like Torie, I started asking myself where all the other great episodes were. Why isn’t “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky?” included? “Journey to Babel” doesn’t make the cut, really? I also agree that “A Taste of Armageddon” belongs on this list–I think about it often, for some reason. Then I recalled some of the life-changing lessons I learned during the course of this re-watch, which I touched on a little in our wrap-up post:
1) Sometimes, you remember episodes as being better than they are. How many times did I go into an episode with the false recollection that it was one of the best? I can never make it up to Torie for mistakenly hyping up “The Gamesters of Triskelion.” What the hell was I thinking? Even in reviewing our index, several episodes jumped out at me as being list-worthy, but then I saw the low rating I gave it and thought better of it.
I have no excuse for ever expecting “Plato’s Stepchildren” to be good, except perhaps that it caused some sort of localized brain damage. And I’m still seething over “Requiem for Methuselah.” On the other hand, I will always love some episodes, like “A Piece of the Action,” even though objectively I know they just don’t hold up. There’s often a fine line between “best” and “favorite,” and on occasion I allow emotion to rule over logic.
2) The corollary to lesson 1 is that sometimes, happily, episodes are better than you remember. Where did “All Our Yesterdays” come from? I was prepared to hate it, but it completely surprised me. I had the same experience with “For the World is Hollow…” and “Metamorphosis,” and even to some extent middling episodes like “Spectre of the Gun.” In part, I have newfound affection and respect for these episodes because I saw them in a new light, or because they surpassed my low expectations; they are now some of my favorites because in a way I’ve watched them again for the first time–one of the many rewards of this re-watch.
This is all a long way of saying that memories can be incredibly unreliable. Especially mine. But of course my tastes would change between the ages of 13 and 33–I’m kind of a different person now. I used to like bologna, too. Our Remastered Re-Watch, or as I originally conceived it, our “Re-re-watch,” was just a joke, but I’m also looking forward to rewatching some of these episodes again soon. Fortunately, I no longer need to rely on my swiss-cheese memory to guide my selections, now that I have this handy reference to the ones that are worth my time. I need never watch a bad Star Trek episode again, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
So, what are your favorites? Which ones are the best?
Next up: Why, the worst episodes, of course!
It’s difficult to argue with that list, other than to nit-pick some rankings, and to note the conspicuous absence of ‘Arena’, which I really think is one of the best and most iconic episodes, and whose message of mercy and empathy for a supposed enemy’s viewpoint are tragically — and perhaps, in the end, fatally — lacking from today’s society.
Indeed, some episodes are better than I remember — even if I was only remembering them as you re-watched them! ‘All Our Yesterdays’ was certainly not originally on my top 10 list, but I have a newfound respect for it.
Likewise, having remembered ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’ as not being great, I’m realising now that it was truly abysmal, and almost beyond redemption (almost, only because I refuse to admit that any Star Trek episode lacks a single redeeming feature).
I liked ‘The Doomsday Machine’ better than ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’, and ‘Requiem for Methuselah’ better than ‘The Return of the Archons’ … and so on.
But yours is not an unreasonable list. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s at the bottom of the pile!
I’m largely in agreement with Nomad here. I certainly would have ranked “The Doomsday Machine” as one of the very best, although I’m willing to admit a lot of that has to do with the wonderful performance by William Windom. I’m still not all that fond of either “The Menagerie” or “Return to Tomorrow”, but everyone has their own taste. Looking at the bottom of the heap will probably be more fun. But then it’s time to stop navel-gazing and move on to either TAS or the movies!
On the other hand, I will always love some episodes, like “A Piece of the Action,” even though objectively I know they just don’t hold up.
This is a subjective list, isn’t it? I’d put it up there for sheer entertainment value.
Doomsday Machine should rank right up there, too. I still quote Windom to this day. “Sweetie, weren’t my glasses on the nightstand?” “They were. BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
Honestly, though I could never call “A Piece of the Action” or “Spectre of the Gun” great episodes, both of them are very enjoyable for me. They’re kind of like guilty pleasures. If I’m flipping through the channels on my tv and stumble upon “Platos Stepchildren” I’ll quickly move on (probably with a curse) but “A Piece of the Action” or Spectre will always cause me to slow and watch for a while.
On the other hand, “The Naked Time” or “The City on the Edge of Forever” are both of a quality that if I happened upon it, I’d probably watch it all the way through simply because they never really grow old.
There’s no way I could ever place Tribbles above The Doomsday Machine. TDM is excellent SF, as Torie is wont to point out, it is about big ideas and important concepts. The idea that our weapons exceed our control and endgaer not only ourselves, but the rest of the universe at large. That is an SF story, then to make it perfect it is fused with some of the best character writing. The horror of command, the insanity of obessession and revenge, the all too human fragility in no win scenerios, all of this makes TDm a terrefic episode.
Tribbles are fun, but like popcorn, really not a meal.
I find it interesting that “Return to Tomorrow” resides in the Top 7, displacing a couple of classics. I consider that a middlin’ episode, perhaps because it contains that preaching monologue by Kirk that set the comedy gold standard for parodies of Shatner’s haltingly high-falutin’ delivery style.
Meanwhile, “Mirror Mirror,” which is really one of the most fun episodes, as well as the most culturally iconic (evil twin beard!), as well as spinning off more later Trek episodes than any other (including the *only* watchable episode of Enterprise), gets pushed down into the middlin’ range.
And I agree with others that “Doomsday Machine” is one of the most durably enjoyable episodes of the series, both exciting and tragic, with a little Caine Mutiny thrown in.
Eh, to each his/her own, I guess ;-)
I find it interesting that people are using iconic as grounds for being in the top ten list. I don’t think it should be a factor. Some things get famous for bizarro reasons. I like that Mirror, Mirror has been completely absorbed into television and film consciousness, but it’s just not as good as, yes, “Return to Tomorrow.” And I still remain uninspired by “Arena.” Kirk’s confidence that the Gorn are planning a genocidal invasion still strikes me as totally ludicrous and invented out of whole cloth, so his wild-eyed pursuit of the Gorn commander is needlessly aggressive and hostile. It doesn’t make up for the mercy in the end.
@ 1 NomadUK
Even the worst episodes do have redeeming features, don’t they.
@ 2 DemetriosX
Unfortunately some navel-gazing is in order for the next few weeks as I work insane hours at the day job and Eugene finalizes his manuscript.
@ 3 ChurchHatesTucker
HA! Nice.
@ 4 toryx
You know, I don’t think I’ve seen TOS on television since, like, the early 90s, to promote TNG.
@ 5 bobsandiego
I have to disagree with you. Tribbles isn’t just fluff. (See what I did there?) Comedy is so much more difficult to pull off than drama, and what Tribbles does superbly is remind us of how human our heroes are. They struggle with bureaucracy, need to relax from time to time, take pride in their work, and get frustrated. Even if you don’t rank the performances or the dialogue among The Best SF Episodes, it’s an essential piece of Trek because it grounds the show in the slightly more mundane, and lets the characters kind of fill in the gaps between saving the universe from space douches. I think you get more character evolution in that episode than in many of the other top eight/ten/whatever.
@ 6 Lemnoc
Eugene and I were both totally surprised at “Return to Tomorrow,” but it just hits all the right notes.
@7 Torie
Are we grading on a curve? Yes, Comedy is hard, that’s why I don’t write funny, but just because Tribbles are funny doesn’t mean they deserve a spot above TDM. IF I could show someone either Tribbles or TDM only as an example of Star Trek hands down it would be TDM.
Character evolution is really a moot point here. This is 60’s TV series characters weren’t expected to change, they entered the episode and exited the episode the same character. (One of the reason why The City On The Edge of Forever is really ground breaking. It’s a real story.) That said, I think Kirk goes through more emotionally in TDM than in Tribbles.
@8. BobSanDiego I’d rank TDM and Tribbles about the same. Don’t forget that Tribbles has an environmental problem at its core.
@9 Churchhatestucker
That’s a recent view of the episode. Read Gerold’s book about the making of the episode and you’ll see the mind set and theme he wanted to explore was that something that looked cute and nice could be dangerous. An early idea dealt with telepathic teddy bears. Cuty furry bags that bred like crazy was a production solution to budget and technical issues. (I must have read that book 7 or 8 times as a teenager. It had a great influence on me as a writer.)
Why a top 8? Is that just how the warps toted up? Because I think your 9 and 10 belong with the top group.
The Doomsday Machine is not just William Windom’s memorable performance; the excellent score is another plus to the episode beyond the regular cast performances. The only element I don’t like on re-watching is the Bridge guards- one makes sense, but having two in this episode only, because one has a specific plot pupose, bothers me. And it bothers me that it bothers me….
Appropriate here, since he was in Tribbles, but I’ve just seen that William Campbell died. He was 84.
@12 DemetriosX
Oh no!
@ 8 bobsandiego
I don’t mean evolution as in changing, I meant more that the characters fill out a bit.
@ 11 sps49
The top 8 are the ones that we both gave Warp 6s to. The runners up received a 6 from one of us and a 5 from the other; the honorable mentions got 5s from both of us. As I said, this was purely a statistical ranking, and as you can see above our favorites differ slightly.
@ 12 DemetriosX
Someone e-mailed me with the news. So sad!
All this talk of “The Doomsday Machine” is making me want to re-watch it. I had given it the 5 mostly because it would make up an entire chapter in the How to Take Over Enterprise in 5 Easy Steps! manual that keeps getting left around. That STILL irks me. The guy is obviously insane. Who would give him control!?
The guy is obviously insane. Who would give him control!?
That’s a civilian point of view. He already HAS control, by virtue of his rank. Taking control away from him is called ‘mutiny’, and is punishable in most militaries by extremely harsh penalties. Only in extraordinary circumstances is refusal to obey an order (much less seizing command) condoned, and even then (as The Caine Mutiny would have reminded all of the viewers) it’s usually career suicide for officers who do it.
I think this was a much more plausible scenario than you give it credit for.
@ 15 DrDave
I don’t mean Sulu starting a rebellion, I mean McCoy declaring him wholly unfit for command. That’s entirely within his purview.
@16 Torie
No, that’s what I was talking about. It is (deliberately) extremely difficult for anyone to have a commander declared incompetent, and doing so even once is the end of your military career, even if you were right. It is “within his purview” in that it is theoretically possible, but it’s the sort of thing where everyone can count on one elbow the historical precedents. Doing it in the heat of battle, for reasons that a court martial — comprised of senior commanders who weren’t there — could easily interpret as “cowardice under fire”, is a desperate last-ditch tactic, not the obvious solution.
Or so it seems to me. I don’t see Star Trek questioning fundamental military culture until TNG…
Also in the episode itself, When Spock brings up relieving Decker under medical reasons, McCoy jumps at the chance until Spock reminds him he will need to submit his proof and that McCoy has not examined Decker and so there is no proof. This was all addressed in episode, another eason why this episode just rocks.
Much as I hate to disagree with Torie, bobsandiego and DrDave have it exactly right. The military aspects of Starfleet were much more pronounced in the first and second seasons, and this is not terribly surprising, given that Roddenberry was in the military himself and that, remember, they were only a bit over 20 years from the end of World War II, and many of the writers and producers probably served in it or in Korea. Knowledge of military discipline and ethos was probably much more widespread than it is now, after a generation or more of the all-volunteer force (in the US).
It’s the sort of Boy Scout level of military ‘discipline’ exhibited in TNG that I always found utterly ridiculous. The scenario in ‘The Doomsday Machine’ was completely believable.
I would question whether it would have been career suicide in the time of Star Trek, because of the much more enlightened world in which they live, plus the advances in medical technology and psychology that would have been used to diagnose Decker had McCoy had the chance — but he didn’t have the chance. And it’s clear from an episode like ‘Court Martial’ that career-ending mistakes could still be made.
@19 NomadUK
I would question whether it would have been career suicide in the time of Star Trek, because of the much more enlightened world in which they live…
I would contend that it is less about enlightenment and more about supply as to why mistakes are career-ending in the military, particularly with naval/ship commanding type of positions.
There are about 80 Submarines total in the USN, Boomers and Attack boat combines. That’s only 80 sub commanders period. There are a hell of lot more officer wanting to command boat than there are boat, so to have only the very best in command is it easy for the system to judge even minor errors as career ending errors. Yeah that means commander get shit canned for bad luck, but life and particularly warfare is not fair.
I think that Roddenberry was kind of trying to make a point about the way the military handles men like Decker. You get a guy whose risen up to such a point where he can make crazy decisions and there’s effectively no way to get rid of him. How often in history has men like these made a bad situation worse?
Of course, demonstrating that with Star Trek is a weird way to go about it, since the whole point of the show was to indicate how better life could be in the future.
I dunno . . . I get what you’re all saying about it being career suicide, but I’d like to think that Starfleet raises officers who have enough independence of mind to recognize that career suicide > actual suicide. Particularly in view of the way they operate with such limited contact with headquarters, you’d think the organization would select for greater individualism — but maybe operating in the wilderness means there’s all the more demand for discipline, too.
Either way, it’s tough for us the audience, having all the answers, to watch the characters struggle with indecision (whether manufactured, or very real but no longer as culturally understood, makes little difference).
Although the question was mostly plausible as aired, Commodore Decker was not the Enterprise’s commanding officer. Starfleet gave command of that ship to Captain Kirk; Commanfer Spock’s chain of command is -> Kirk -> Starfleet Local Area or Division commander -> etc -> Starfleet Operations -> Federation Council (roughly); Decker should not be in Spock’s chain at all. Historically, a “commodore” was the senior captain in a group of ships or a formal rank just above captain meant to direct immediate tactics, but as CO of the Constellation Decker had no right to take command of the Enterprise. If he had wanted to stand in back and direct Spock (acting CO of Enterprise) and Kirk’s (acting Officer-in-Charge of Constellation) actions, he had every right to assert that authority, but trying to directly replace Kirk should be a no-no.
The same would go for Commodore Stocker in “The Deadly Years”, by the way.
tl;dr Those with senior rank have to follow the chain of command; collar devices/ stripes don’t put all lesser ranks at your beck-and-call (one’s real supervisor might wonder where one had wandered off to!)
@23sps49
That sounds correct to me, but Decker quotes regulations when he takes command so I guess we just have to assume taht StarFleet has some wonky ideas about the chain of command. (And that goes double for Kirk’s ‘personal authority’ to have Spack take Decker from Command.)
Citing U.S. and other military regulations may not be the end-all in trying to understand what was going on here. Remember – this is Star Fleet, an arm of the United Federation of Planets. While what we see in the original series is a Star Fleet seemingly made up of mostly Earth Humans, we are told about a star ship manned by Vulcans. What’s to say that there weren’t other ships manned by other member races. The writer in me can come up with reasons this could be but those are beyond the scope of this discussion.
As a military arm built on the traditions and customs of the member races (note the plural) of the Federation, Star Fleet’s rules and regulations are sure to be a mix of the best – or most important – from each member world’s traditional military regulations. Therefore, it may be correct that the highest ranking officer on the ship (even if outside the chain of command) takes command in a combat or other high threat situation. And, as a power check, Kirk’s use of ‘personal authority’ may also be correct within the realm of Star Fleet. I guess all this was brought about by the need to please both the Vulcans and the Andorians.
Hey folks, I know we’re all anxious to revisit the dregs of the series with our list of the worst episodes, but Torie’s computer was felled by a virus and we’re both mired in heavy workloads. So we’ll get to that last post next week, but then things are looking up, sort of–the animated series re-watch is the light at the end of the tunnel…
In the meantime, please keep up this lively discussion, and feel free to anticipate the very worst episodes so you can compare them to the list Torie cooks up.
By the by, I’m going to be in NYC tomorrow and Saturday (departing Sunday morning). I’ll be meeting up with an old friend from the west coast who hasn’t actually told me when she’s available so my availability as is yet uncertain but I do know I’m just going to be wandering around for much of Friday afternoon (2 to 6 or 7) and probably otherwise unoccupied Saturday morning from 10 until 3 or so.
Anyway I know it’s too late a notice for Eugene to head over from Philly but I thought I’d mention it. Not sure if Torie or any other New Yorkers are interested in getting together for coffee or drinks or whatever but if so feel free to drop me a note either here or at freetoryx at gmail (or the one listed with this account that Torie might still have from the great tribble contest at Tor).
Hey folks, I know we’re all anxious to revisit the dregs of the series with our list of the worst episodes…
Um, we are?
heck yes. Good ones are easy to talk about its so much more fun to rag on Spock’s Brain.
I’m a long time lurker, and I just had to decloak to add that I too name TDM as a favorite, probably my very favorite. I’d definitely rewatch that one over Return to Tomorrow any day. RTM struck me as stagey all along, including when I watched it a few months back.
But I can’t expect everyone to agree with me on everything, and I think Torie and Eugene have done an excellent job explaining their reasons.
Back when these episodes were only available on single videotapes and I was a kid with little money, TDM and A Taste of Armageddon were two of the three I had copies of; I still often think of ATA from time to time. And then moments of Charlie X are truly haunting. That ending is somber and powerful and one of the finest moments in Trek.
Allow me to join the mutiny by your readers and declare “The Doomsday Machine” top 8-worthy. :) It really is up there high on my list. When Decker takes command, it still causes me tremendous stress — on the umpteenth viewing! The suspense! The action! Anyway… Your list is pretty much on target. FWIW, my faves are:
1. The City on the Edge of Forever
2. The Trouble with Tribbles
3. The Menagerie
3. Mirror, Mirror
4. Balance of Terror
5. The Doomsday Machine
6. Space Seed
7. Amok Time
8. The Naked Time
9. The Enterprise Incident
10. All Our Yesterdays
Okay, okay; I know I cheated by putting two #3’s and including both parts of the Menagerie as a single episode. But still.
@ 19 NomadUK
You don’t like disagreeing with me? :)
Re: the mutiny thing, I take all your points. However, I chalk up that kind of rigidity in the Federation hierarchy more to an implied meritocracy (these are the best of the best!) than to a specific desire to reflect military rules.
@ 27 Toryx
I’m so sorry I missed you! I had been working insane hours and would not have been able to meet up. Next time…
@ 30 Howard Andrew Jones
It’s a great ending. Compare it to, say, “Wink of an Eye”–another episode that was supposed to be poignant and haunting, and yet just felt cruel–and you really get a sense of the downward trajectory.
@ 31 Mercurio
A faultless list.
My top eight (and I don’t have a problem with emotion beating out logic here) –
The Doomsday Machine
Mirror Mirror
A Taste of Armageddon
The Changeling
The Trouble With Tribbles
Balance of Terror
Space Seed
The Galileo Seven
You all are forgetting my personal favorite episode. And on at least one occasion Mr. Shatner himself has listed this as his favorite episode: Devil in the Dark.