Best Star Trek episodes (in watching order)
listing the best episodes (in my opinion) of all the Star Trek series, putting them in order of when made (divided by series) so if your watching for the first time you can see all the best episodes from beginning to end of each series. (I have another list putting them strictly in order of best first.)
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- DirectorRobert ButlerStarsJeffrey HunterSusan OliverLeonard NimoyCapt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions."The Cage" was the first episode made but never shown by itself until 1986. It was shown in flashbacks in the 60's in the 2-part Star Trek episode "The Menagerie", where we learn Captain Pike was the Captain of the Enterprise before Captain Kirk. I didn't like "The Menagerie" as a kid, I wished they just showed only the flashbacks as a one part episode, I didn't know the flashbacks were the original pilot episode. On it's own I consider "The Cage" one of the 10 best of the original series episodes. (The pilot episode was not approved to become a series, but then Lucy Arnaz of "I Love Lucy" said she liked the show and ordered a second pilot episode to be made with needed changes. (She owned the studio.)) Only Spock's character made it to the next episode, although actress Majel Barrett also made it to the series but as a different character, going from Number One to being Nurse Chapel (she had previously worked with Lucy Arnaz and was dating executive producer Gene Roddenberry). When they made a VCR tape of this episode to buy in 1986 they made it available in black and white also, making many people think it was originally made that way, but it was originally made in color. (When they divided up the scenes from "The Cage" to intregrate into "The Menagerie" they did not know they were using the original print and some shaved off scenes were lost forever. But a full black-and-white workprint version of the pilot with complete visual effects and music existed which is what they released in 1986. The color version you see on t.v. is all the scenes they used in the episode "The Menagerie" put in order but without the edited out and accidentally lost scenes that are still in the black and white workprint version.) Don't miss the first 10 seconds of the show when they pan down to show where the bridge is on the Enterprise, I don't think any other episode bothered to show us that.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyAnthony D. CallAfter the Enterprise is forced to destroy a dangerous marker buoy, a gigantic alien ship arrives to capture and condemn the crew as trespassers.
- DirectorMarc DanielsStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyStewart MossThe crew is infected with a mysterious disease that removes people's emotional inhibitions to a dangerous degree.
- DirectorJames GoldstoneStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyMichael StrongNurse Chapel is reunited with her fiancé; but his new obsession leads him to make an android duplicate of Captain Kirk.
- DirectorVincent McEveetyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyMark LenardThe Enterprise must decide on its response when a Romulan ship makes a destructively hostile armed probe of Federation territory.
- DirectorRobert SparrStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyEmily BanksThe past months have left the crew exhausted and in desperate need of a break, but does this explain McCoy's encounter with a human-sized white rabbit or Kirk crossing paths with the prankster who plagued his days at Starfleet Academy?
- DirectorDon McDougallStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyWilliam CampbellA being that controls matter and creates planets wants to play with the Enterprise crew.There is a fun fan theory that this is an early appearance of "Q" before he became more mature personality-wise, makes you want to watch it again with that in mind.
- DirectorMichael O'HerlihyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyRoger PerryThe Enterprise is thrown back in time to 1960s Earth.
- DirectorMarc DanielsStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyRicardo MontalbanWhile on patrol in deep space, Captain Kirk and his crew find and revive a genetically-engineered world conqueror and his compatriots from Earth's Twentieth Century.
- DirectorRalph SenenskyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyJill IrelandThe Enterprise investigates a planet whose colonists should be dead, but are not.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyJoan CollinsWhen a temporarily insane Dr. McCoy accidentally changes history and destroys his time, Kirk and Spock follow him to prevent the disaster, but the price to do so is high.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDavid OpatoshuKirk and Spock must save their ship's crew when they are all declared killed in action in a bizarre computer simulated war where the actual deaths must nevertheless occur.
- DirectorMarc DanielsStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyA transporter accident places Captain Kirk's landing party in an alternate universe, where the Enterprise is in the service of a barbarically brutal empire.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyThe Enterprise hosts a number of quarrelling diplomats, including Spock's father, but someone on board has murder in mind.
- DirectorMarc DanielsStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyThe USS Enterprise encounters the wrecked USS Constellation and its distraught commodore who's determined to stop the giant planet-destroying robot ship that killed his crew.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyTo protect a space station with a vital grain shipment, Kirk must deal with Federation bureaucrats, a Klingon battle cruiser and a peddler who sells furry, purring, hungry little creatures as pets.
- DirectorJames KomackStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyThe crew of the Enterprise struggles to cope with a planet of imitative people who have modeled their society on 1920s gangsters.
- DirectorVincent McEveetyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyLooking for a missing Federation cultural observer, Kirk and Spock find themselves on a planet whose culture has been completely patterned after Nazi Germany.
- DirectorJohn Meredyth LucasStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyAn apparently insane Capt. Kirk has the Enterprise deliberately enter the Romulan Neutral Zone where the ship is immediately captured by the enemy.
- DirectorMarvin J. ChomskyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyWhen Kirk, Spock and McCoy investigate the disappearance of a doomed planet's population, they find themselves trapped in different periods of that world's past.The first to last episode of "Star Trek:The Original Series".
Although there was one episode made after this one, this episode has a later stardate so it takes place after the last episode that was shown, and it would have made a much more fitting ending to the series if they had known the series was ending.
This is the only episode of The Original Series not to have any scenes onboard the U.S.S Enterprise. - 1987–19941h 32mTV-PG6.9 (7.4K)TV EpisodeDirectorCorey AllenStarsPatrick StewartJonathan FrakesLeVar BurtonOn the maiden mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), an omnipotent being known as Q challenges the crew to discover the secret of a mysterious base in an advanced and civilized fashion.The first episode of "Star Trek:The Next Generation".
The first episode with the character "Q".
Q is in 8 episodes, 7 of which made it to this list. He was also on an episode of "Star Trek:Deep Space Nine" which is on this list, and was on 3 episodes of
"Star Trek:Voyager", all of which are on this list.
Actor John DeLancie, who plays Q, was in a t.v. movie "Angel of Death" starring Jane Seymour which also has Star Trek alum Brian Bonsall as her son. Brian played Worf's son in 7 episodes of "Star Trek:The Next Generation". - DirectorJoseph L. ScanlanStarsPatrick StewartJonathan FrakesLeVar BurtonCaptain Picard and some of his crew are caught in a deadly trap in the holodeck as the result of a ship-wide scan from an alien race.The first episode to use the holodeck.
- DirectorCliff BoleStarsPatrick StewartJonathan FrakesLeVar BurtonAfter diverting to a secret meeting with an old friend and some of Starfleet's finest commanders, Picard finds the Horatio blown to bits just hours after the meeting and he returns the Enterprise to Earth looking for answers.
- 1987–199446mTV-PG8.1 (4.4K)TV EpisodeDirectorRob BowmanStarsPatrick StewartJonathan FrakesLeVar BurtonAn attempt to provide Data with a challenging Sherlock Holmes holodeck program backfires when its Professor Moriarty character accidentally becomes self-aware.This episode has a sequel in the season 6 episode
"Ship in a Bottle". - DirectorRob BowmanStarsPatrick StewartJonathan FrakesLeVar BurtonWesley falls for the young future leader of Daled IV, unaware just how dangerous the girl's protective and overly restrictive guardian can be.