Like a lot of my generation, I watched a lot of Star Trek: The Original Series when I was a kid, first when it originally aired in the late 1960s (when I was five and six years old), and later in reruns during the 1970s. My friends and I “played” Trek a lot, and for a while I attempted to make audio recordings of the shows on my cassette recorder.
Even today as a result of that exposure, I am a contender against anyone who wants to challenge me to “Name that Trek,” since I can usually name the episode during the first few words of the prologue.
Of course, I have favorite episodes, and I thought it might amuse Trekkers worldwide to see a list of them:
- The Naked Time
- The Doomsday Machine
- The Corbomite Maneuver
- Balance of Terror
- The Devil in the Dark
- The Gamesters of Triskelion
- The Ultimate Computer
- The Galileo Seven
Note that I did not include The Trouble with Tribbles. A lot of people liked this one most of all, and while it’s a fun episode, I tended to like a little less comedy from my scifi.
The lamest episode list goes like this:
- The Conscience of the King
- Shore Leave
- The Alternative Factor
- The Apple
- Spock’s Brain
- Turnabout Inturder (which is unintentionally comical)
P. S. Spock scoring with Jill Ireland in This Side of Paradise really points out how much it usually sucks to be a Vulcan. At the same time, I think the producers missed the point in Requiem for Methuselah, since it would be pretty cool to be immortal with a fleet of hot robotic girlfriends.
I don’t know show titles, but here are my favorites: The one with the dude that’s just a head in a box who’s remembering how he got that way. Landrieu, Guide Us (I love this one because our mayor’s name is Landrieu). “I Know How to Use This, Captain”. “Who’s to say he’s too ugly to bear, or too beautiful to bear?”. Go for it — name those episodes!
#1, the head guy. I think this is The Menagerie, in which former captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, is being taken to Talos IV where he can be healthy again. The makeup and wheelchair were because they couldn’t get the original actor to play Pike.
#2, the will of Landru. This is Return of the Archons, about a will-less people led by a machine programmed by a long-dead leader named Landru. The crew of the Enterprise are the fabled “Archons” who free the people.
#3, the “I know how to use this, Captain!”: Conscience of the King. I never liked this episode at all, but my sister can deliver that line like she starred in it.
#4, the ugly one: Is There in Truth No Beauty? This is about a race of green glowing box-dwellers called Medusans (what else?), who are excellent statesmen and negotiators, but apparently have a lot of zits or something, because looking at them causes instant madness. Diana Mulduar stars as the hot blind chick in the magic dress that interfaces with Kollos, the ugliest kid in his class.
One of my favorites is the one in which Spock has to go back to the planet Vulcan for a marriage ceremony and has to fight Kirk. I just love the spot at the end when Spock sees Kirk alive after having “killed” him. Great stuff!