In the more than 50 years sinceStar Trekmade its debut on NBC, the franchise has seen more than a dozen feature films and successfully launched its sixth spinoff series last year with CBS All Access’Star Trek: Discovery. For all the many amazing stories told in the decades to come, it’s hard to beat the originalStar Trek. Running for just three seasons, the series has become synonymous with the science fiction genre and emerged a cultural touchstone that has entertained, educated and inspired dreamers all over the world.
Like any series,Star Trekhas its ups and downs. The best episodes, though, rank among television’s very finest. We’ve assembled a list ofStar Trek’s 20 best original series episodes, each of which has withstood the test of time in delivering stories that, despite their spectacle and imagination, are ultimately about exploring the human condition. As such, many of the themes explored onGene Roddenberry’s show have only become more relevant and the show’s 23rdcentury setting all the more important a future to which we might aspire.
20) The Menagerie - Parts One and Two
The only two-part episode of the originalStar Trek, “The Menagerie” is, in a weird way, a kind of clip show. BeforeWilliam Shatnerwas cast as Captain James T. Kirk,Star Trekhad shot a pilot, “The Cage,” starringJeffrey Hunteras Captain Christopher Pike. In fact, the only character to carry over from the unaired pilot wasLeonard Nimoy’sSpock. Naturally, he’s front and center of “The Menagerie,” a Starfleet courtroom drama in which Enterprise logs are used as evidence, allowing the entirety of “The Cage” to be incorporated into a larger story set some years later.
Hunter did not reprise the Pike role, the episode finding the character having just suffered an accident that has left him a scarred shell of his former self. With a mysterious motivation that is revealed through the course of his trial, Spock abducts Pike and commandeers the Enterprise. With a course locked to a forbidden planet, Spock calmly turns himself over for his court martial, giving the narrative a fantastic ticking clock.
“The Menagerie” arrived midway throughStar Trek’sfirst season and its expansion ofStar Treklore is, in part, why the franchise continues to this day. Bringing “The Cage” (released some years later on its own) intoStar Trekcontinuity paved the way for future Captains of the Enterprise and reminded us thatStar Trek’stimeline doesn’t necessarily need to proceed linearly.
Anyone familiar withStar Trekfrom theJ.J. Abramsfilms also got to meet Captain Pike.Bruce Greenwoodplayed the part in both 2009’sStar Trekand 2013’sStar Trek Into Darkness.
19) The Corbomite Maneuver
Although it aired out of sequence, “The Corbomite Maneuever” followedStar Trek’s first two pilots with a story that sees the Enterprise coming into contact with a mysterious and powerful alien sphere in an unexplored area of space. Diplomacy soon fails and a strange looking creature, Balok, tells Kirk that his ship will be destroyed. That’s when Kirk comes up with an epic bluff, aiming to convince the alien that the Enterprise contains a made up element, corbomite, that promises mutually assured destruction.
The notion of bluffing is huge inStar Trekand “The Corbomite Manuever” is the most classic example. A bluff, after all, means applying fiction to create a better reality. In a nutshell, that’s exactly whatStar Trekis all about. Over the course of the series, the crew of the Enterprise will use their unique perspective to defy the laws of alien civilizations, Starfleet’s own bureaucracy and even of physics themselves. It’s usually about knowing the right time to do the wrong thing and, of that, Captain Kirk is a proven master. He knows exactly when to bend the rules to achieve the greater good.
“The Corbomite Maneuver” also introduces a common theme that alien races aren’t necessarily as alien as they might appear with a final act that features a youngClint Howard.
18) A Piece of the Action
It may sound a bit silly, but the Enterprise’s visit to a planet ruled by 1920’s Chicago gangsters is a whole lot of fun. It even makes a bit more sense than it sounds: a hundred years before this episode takes place, another ship, the Horizon, wound up bringing a book about Chicago mobsters to the planet’s highly suggestible inhabitants, the Iotians. Treating it like a bible, the entire culture adapted to suit the book.
There’s a lot of costume play throughoutStar Trekhistory and seeing Kirk and Spock in gangster outfits is a whole lot more fun than say, the time they have to dress up the Nazis in the second season episode “Patterns of Force”. “A Piece of the Action” would serve as a prototype forStar Trek: The Next Generation’sholodeck episodes and open the idea that any planet anywhere in the universe could theoretically have a culture identical to any period on Earth.
An abandoned plotline for a 30thanniversary episode ofStar Trek: Deep Space Nine(later told in alternate form in aStar Trekcomic) would have seen a return to the Iotian planet and the reveal that, following the events of “A Piece of the Action,” the planet wound up being so heavily influenced by the Enterprise’s visit that it had evolved to become, essentially, a planet of classicStar Trekfans.
17) The Squire of Gothos
Several episodes of the originalStar Trekfind the crew coming face to face with seemingly omnipotent foes, but few are as quite as memorable asWilliam Campbell’s performance as the ebullient mischief maker Trelane, self-professed “Squire of Gothos”. When the Enterprise discovers a planet in an area of space that should be abandoned, the crew is drawn to the world’s sole inhabitant, a godlike individual fascinated with 18thcentury Earth history who views the crew as nothing more than his playthings.
From Loki of Greek mythology to DC Comics’ Mr. Mxyzptlk, the trickster god is a classic foe. Part of what makes it work so well in the world ofStar Trekis because the crew of the Enterprise, to us, appears so advanced technologically. As was the case with foes like Thor or Superman, having an even more powerful foes forces the heroes to rely on their wits alone, ultimately proving that omnipotence is nothing without intelligence and compassion.
Trelane also helped pave the way forJohn DeLancie’s Q onStar Trek: The Next Generation. Appearing in more than a dozen episodes of subsequentStar Trekseries, Q shares Trelane’s paradoxical blend affability and obnoxiousness. While it’s never specified in the canon, stories told inStar Trekbooks and comics have connected the characters.
16) Day of the Dove
The Enterprise responds to a distress call only to find a deserted planet and Klingon forces nearby. When both ships somehow become disabled, tensions begin to mount to an unusual degree.Walter Koenig’s Chekov is threatening to avenge the death of his brother at the Klingons’ hands. But then it’s revealed that he doesn’t even have a brother. Things get weirder and weirder as the planet itself seems to encourage conflict, supplying weapons and easy reasons to give into hatred.
It’s never revealed exactly what the force is that both crews encounter on planet Beta XII-A, but it seems to be a destructive energy that is, perhaps, a manifestation of destructive energy itself, depicted as a crackling red force. When Kirk realizes that he andMichael Ansara’s Klingon commander Kang are being manipulated, “Day of the Dove” gives us one ofWilliam Shatner’s great mini-monologues.
“All right. All right,” Kirk shouts at Kang. “In the heart. In the head. I won’t stay dead. Next time I’ll do the same to you. I’ll kill you. And it goes on, the good old game of war, pawn against pawn! Stopping the bad guys. While somewhere, something sits back and laughs and starts it all over again.”
That’s a message that, sadly, is every bit as timely today as it was half a century ago.
15) The Galileo Seven
Things go bad during a routine science mission, forcing a shuttlecraft, the Galileo, to make an emergency landing on a dangerous planet, home to enormous apelike beasts. What’s more, a coming ion storm and trouble in another part of the galaxy mean that the Enterprise may need to give up the search.
While there’s some great Kirk moments as he squeezes every possible opportunity from the chain of command to keep looking for the Galileo, this episode is Spock’s show. We get to see him take command over a six-person crew and deal with having to give orders that put officers in mortal danger. Fear amongst the crew makes things all the more dangerous as Spock has to face officers who question his Vulcan logic and, ultimately, his own uncertainty in command to save the crew.
The plot for “The Galileo Seven” originated withOliver Crawford, who co-wrote the episode’s script withS. Bar-David. He has said that “The Galileo Seven” was directly inspired by the 1939 big screen thrillerFive Came Back, about a small airplane that crashed in a South American jungle.
14) A Private Little War
Star Trekwas offering a direct allegorical take on the Vietnam War in 1968 with a story that finds Captain Kirk in a moral dilemma. A planet of immense natural resources, Neural, is home to a primitive race. Although Starfleet’s Prime Directive would normally preclude any interference, the Enterprise learns that conflict has broken out among the natives with one side being given advanced weaponry by the Klingon Empire.
While the Enterprise quite often finds itself in the position of having to balance moral imperatives, “A Private Little War” is the best example of the show taking on a contemporary political issue, even if the conclusion doesn’t offer any easy answers.
“A Private Little War” also introduces a memorableStar Trekalien that only appears in this one episode. The Mugato is a ferocious white ape with a spiked back and a poisonous bite.Ben Stiller, a bigStar Trekfan, borrowed the name forWill Ferrell’s character in his 2001 comedyZoolander.
13) Journey to Babel
The Enterprise is journeying to the planet Babel for a diplomatic conference when one of the visiting ambassadors is murdered. The lineup of suspects includes a wide range of alien dignitaries and one chief suspect:Mark Lenard’s Vulcan ambassador Sarek. Adding to the drama, Sarek just happens to be Spock’s estranged father.
Not only is “Journey to Babel” an interesting mystery with a grand assembly of interesting alien species, it reveals so much about Spock and his history with his father. It’s a relationship that continues to develop for decades after “Journey to Babel”. Lenard returns as Sarek throughout the franchise’s big screen run and beyond. He’s even set to be a featured character inStar Trek: DiscoverywithJames Frainfilling in for the late Lenard.
Before he played Sarek, Mark Lenard famously took on the role of another prominentStar Trekcharacter. Look for details on that performance a bit further down this list.
12) Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
The Enterprise intercepts a stolen shuttlecraft containingLou Antonio’sLokai, a fugitive from a planet called Charon. Although he looks like a human being, Lokai is split down the middle, one side black and the other white. It’s not long beforeFrank Gorshinshows up as Bele, a fellow being from Charon who utterly despises Lokai. Although they may initially appear identical, it is revealed that Bele and Lokai are alternately colored. Bele is black on the left side and white on the right while Lokai is the reverse. Hence, in their culture, their hatred for one another.
With “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,”Star Trekfinds a way to tell a story that isn’t just about racism, but that makes racism itself the focal point for its sci-fi lens, imagining a brand new way to hate and making a powerful reminder that any reason for doing so based on any other physical attribute is just as unnatural.
11) The Doomsday Machine
The crew of the Enterprise faces one of its most awesome cosmic challenges when it comes up against a massive, world-eating device of extreme alien origin. In fact, the device is so alien that we never really learn what it is, although Kirk theorizes it to be an ancient doomsday device. The Enterprise isn’t the first Starfleet ship on the scene this time, either. By the time the Enterprise discovers the danger to the galaxy, the USS Constellation has already risked everything in an attempt to stop the planet killer. The Constellation is recovered by the Enterprise with only one crewmember still left alive,William Windom’s Commodore Matt Decker.
Not only does “The Doomsday Machine” feature such a memorable monster, it features some great drama between Kirk and Decker. Having just lost his crew to the cosmic goliath, the Commodore is suffering from severe posttraumatic stress and not necessarily thinking with a clear head. Because he technically outranks Kirk, that poses a serious problem in dealing with the matter at hand.
“The Doomsday Machine” also sets up a nice bit of continuity withStar Trek: The Motion Picture. One of the main characters in the 1979Robert Wisefilm isStephen Collins’ Captain Willard Decker, the son of Commodore Matt Decker.
