The Best/Worst Episodes of Star Trek TOS(By Les and richb)

Greetings Manic fans.  Les here today to collaborate with my good friend, richb, for the first time, and I'm pretty excited by it.  I've enjoyed his outstanding television articles from way back when we were still at TGWTG, so as far as I'm concerned.....'BOUT TIME LOL!  And so, will you all please welcome richb to my blog.

Les:  Thank you for coming over to my blog today.

RichB: My pleasure my friend, I have been around for awhile but have still never done one of these. And thanks for the compliment i enjoy your amazing work as well. It's hard to believe I have almost done 200 Blogs. But were not here to talk about that, but something near and dear to both out hearts---STAR TREK!!

LES:  Yes-STAR TREK!!  The radical new science fiction Television series that premiered in 1966 and forever changed Pop culture, technology and a lot of the rules of what was acceptable in a Television show.

RichB;  It really is amazing to think this franchise has been going for over 45 years! The original series is still a classic. When I was a kid I just thought the Enterprise was cool and liked the corny action. When I got older, I realized that there were some really good, well told stories here! Well, most of the stories were good and well told. Some were just donwright silly. The same goes for the sequel shows TNG, DS9, Voyager....and Enterprise (do we have to talk about Enterprise?)

LES:  Well....I suppose we should at least mention Enterprise, even if it wasn't as critically acclaimed as its forbearers.....but the franchises....WOW!  What a history that owes it's existence to the determination of fans who demanded "Bring back our beloved show!"  You might say that Star Trek was ahead of its time in that respect.

RichB: No question about that! After the second season a letter writing campaign actually convinced the network to not cancel the show. This was in the 60's! Something like that would be crazy even by today's standards. And the fact that in 1986 Paramount decided to bring Star Trek back to television--many don't remember what a big deal that was! There was a press conference and everything. I sometimes think the younger kids don't realize today just what an impact the original series had on people, heck why else would they sit through The Motion Picture and love it? 

LES:  LOL!  Yeah, we loved the show so much, we DID sit through TMP and enjoyed it......of course when Star Trek II came out, we REALLY enjoyed it, but I digress.  And you really hit the nail on the head about the impact the original series had on everyone.  Just think:  Star Trek broke major new ground in doing a lot of "firsts" in TV:  First African American in a starring role that wasn't a servant or criminal of some kind-and a woman to boot(Very unheard of in 1960's television)-Lt. Uhura(Nichelle Nichols).  First Interacial kiss(Lt. Uhura again....).  First show with an international(and intergalactic, for that matter) crew, including Mr. Checkov(Walter Koenig) a Russian working with a crew was unheard of during the American/Soviet cold war....Mr. Sulu(George Takei) a Japanese helmsman(That's another minority given an important bridge task)...Mr. Scott(James Doohan) a Scottsman in charge of the ship's engines(Well, actually, Scotts being ship's engineers is a long standing tradition...but Still...he's in an international crew)....Mr. Spock(Leonard Nimoy) and this was the big one.  Half-human, Half-Vulcan, Mr. Spock was the ultimate champion for racial tolerance.  Star Trek showed us a world where we were stronger for having broken down the racial bariers and decided to work together.  And don't get me started on the technology that inspired real world breakthroughs.....

RichB: I know, right? I still loved how the flip phones everyone used looked like communicators. And have you noticed that the IPad's everyone use today bear a striking similiarity to the PAD's that were used in Next Gen and DS9? Picard even used to have a laptop on his desk! It's amazing how much of the "futuristic  technology" in TNG is basically being used today! Of course my favorite film was Star Trek IV, but that was just because I had such a darn good time when I saw that. Star Trek IV led to me to watch TNG which I loved, and then I went back to the classic series and really appreciated. I have fond memories of each show. I watched TNG with my brother growing up, DS9 in college with my friend, and Voyager with my wife. Star Trek has been a serious part of my life!

LES:  And don't forget the doors that open automatically as you approach them.  Completely common today, but Star Trek did it first, my friend.  So, what can 2 Trekkers bring to the blogging table in a collaboration?  Shall we discuss each series, individually?  Rate shows?  Have different series compete in a VS battle?

RichB : I think that one of the fun things about Trek are the discussions, or debates. Kirk vs. Picard?, Original series vs. TNG?, Was Janeway a bitch?, what do you mean Enterprise wasn't that bad.....this is the kind of stuff that keeps fans talking and attending conventions (fyi, attended two and they were fun). So rather than discuss "the best vs the worst" why not discuss favorite vs. not favorite? In the past whenever I did something like this I throw out a dozen episodes. This time let's be challenging. You're flat out favorite episode, per season, and the one episode you can't stand. And by the way, I'll take Kirk any day.

LES:  I've been to 6 Conventions and they're a blast :D.  Kirk is great, but I'll serve under Picard LOL!  Ok, absolute favorite episode, per season and the one I can't stand?  Challenge accepted.
*Goes to the replicator....
"Tea, Earl Grey, HOT!"
*Cup of tea materializes.
Very well.  And so, richb and I are going to present our respective all time favorite and despised episodes of each season of each series of Star Trek.

Warning:  Spoilers and yummy Trek goodness ahead

Rich B: Star Trek premiered on NBC in 1966. It was innovative, unique, and not afraid to handle sensitive subjects. No wonder the network hated it. The first season was strong, though not as strong as season two would be. The first few episodes were kind of weak but they picked up steam and came out with some good stuff. Ok, enough with the history lesson.

FAVORITE EPISODE-"This Side of Paradise"

This was hard because I always liked season 2 more, season one still felt like they were trying to play it safe. There were lots of great shows, but nothing elevated one over another. However, this episode is one I have always adored. Spores infect the crew causing them all to mutiny for a world of paradise, including Mr.Spock! This episode has a great fight scene where Kirk tries to get Spock to snap out of it, and is almost killed for his efforts. You know it's not easy for Kirk to do, but he does.

LEAST FAVORITE EPISODE-"Miri"

Sweet lord I hate this episode. The landing party beam down and are stuck there because they get infected with this strange disease. It's just, creepy. It feels like they started with a cool idea, finding a duplicate of Earth, and had no idea what to do with it! And that scene where Yeoman Rand tries to show Kirk her infected legs....how awful was that? Granted McCoy's action in the end is a nice moment and well done, but not enough to make me like this uncomfortable show any more.

LES:  Nice picks.  This is a hard thing to do, as I loved a lot of the episodes from season 1.   I might've picked The Menagerie, the only 2-part episode of TOS for the clever way they re-introduced footage from the first Star Trek Pilot of Captain Pike's experience with the illusion-creating Talosians that led to General Order Seven-the crime Mr. Spock is court-martialed for breaking.

I also might've picked The Devil in the Dark, a very clever episode involving fear of the unknown, misperceptions and the greatest natural diggers in the Universe.

I almost picked Space Seed, the episode that introduced one of the greatest villains of all time.  Say it with me....KHAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!!

But I decided to choose "The City on the Edge of Forever,"

as my favorite first season episode.  Simply put, it's a beautifuly told story of tragic love, time travel and one man's sacrifice for the future.  

When Doctor McCoy is accidentaly shot full of cordrazine, he goes insane and beams down to a planet with ancient remains of a long-gone civilization.  Kirk and Spock and a landing party pursue him and discover an artifact called the Guardian of Forever.  It's a time/space machine that observes the Universe.  While Spock is attempting to use it to record Earth history lost in WWIII, McCoy jumps into it....and the Federation and the Enterprise vanish.

Determining that McCoy has changed history, Kirk and Spock reset the Guardian and leap into it to try and stop him.  They arrive during the Great Depression in New York and get jobs at a food line shelter run by Edith Keeler(Joan Collins).  Kirk falls in love with her while Spock attempts to build a working computer interface for his tricorder out of antiquated technology.  He discovers that in the original timeline, Edith Keeler was killed in a car accident, but McCoy had saved her instead.  Keeler went on to form a pacifist movement that prevented America's entry into WWII and the Nazis conquered the world.

Faced with the knowlege that Edith Keeler must die to restore the timeline, Kirk is devestated.  In a heartbreaking moment, they find McCoy and Edith starts across the street to meet them when the fatal car approaches.  McCoy shouts and rushes to push her aside, when Kirk stops him.  Keeler dies, and McCoy is furious with Kirk.  "Do you know what you've done?"  Calmly, Spock replies, "Yes, doctor, he does."  The look on Kirk's face is pure agony and loss.

The timeline restored, the three are drawn back through the Guardian where he informs them that all is as it was, and all journeys are possible.  Kirk's reply?  "Let's get the Hell out of here."  It is the harshest command he ever gives on the show.

This episode set the standard for time travelers altering history for Star Trek and to this day is one of the best Time Travel episodes ever made.

As for the worst episode, I'm going with "The Alternative Factor."

In this one, The Enterprise is exploring a new planet when reality "winks" out for a second.  They then discover a life reading on the planet that wasn't there before.  Beaming down, they find a lone man who calls himself Lazarus......long story short, he is fighting his counterpart from a paralel anti-matter universe, traveling between both realities through a time/space machine(Amazing how my favorite episode and this one have a commonality...)and if they come into contact anywhere but the corridor between both worlds, the the Universe will come to an end.  Kirk pushes him into the machine and then has the Enterprise destroy it, trapping both men to fight each other for all eternity.
It's not a terrible episode....just boring and uninteresting....

RichB : City on the Edge is a beautiful story,,,but as a Star Trek episode? This has been a subject of many debates over the years, even the author of the original story has said this episode is horrible. I won't go that far but I do think this episode does not feel like Trek, and it's hard to accept Kirk would fall for Edith when you consider it. I also considered Tomorrow is Yesterday which is a strong, though not perfect, episode.

As for your worst pick, no real argument there. I think the seeds were there for a great show about alternate realities, but it misses the mark and has enough plot holes and boring moment to be forgettable. Before we move on to the 2nd season I wanted to add I hated Return of the Archons to, it was just an uncomfortable episode.

LES:  AWWWWW You didn't like "Landru" the supercomputer?  Oh well 

RichB : Creeped me out when I was younger!  

LES:  LOL!  Ok, so we've got season 1 out of the way.....next up, season 2 where DeForest Kelly gets a screen credit in the introduction to the show....

RichB : It always bothered me that not the entire cast got credit, but at least someone wised up and realized DeForest Kelly should be on there. Anyway, Season 2 produced the strongest and most memorable shows of the entire run. Amok Time, Doomsday Machine, Trouble with Tribbles. Picking a favorite is almost impossible!

FAVORITE-MIRROR, MIRROR

This is soooo hard. But Mirror, Mirror was just a fantastic script. We all know the drill, during an ion storm Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura swap places with their counterparts from a parallel world. As the try to find  a way home they have to deal with crewmen bent on killing and a Spock with a beard!

This is not the most socially relevant episode, but man is it a lot of fun! The story actually makes sense and I give the writer credit for doing such amazing work. The action is good, and there is even suspense in the end. Just a great episode, and I decided that it should be this over Trouble with Tribbles because everyone says that's their favorite. To be honest, I do love that episode also.

WORST-THE OMEGA GLORY

Yes I found one horrible episode. On paper this episode has a good premise. The Enterprise finds a ship whose crew has been killed. Also infected Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to find the captain of the doomed ship. The captain has violated the prime directive and become involved in the conflict on the planet.

It's a long, boring mess but the worst thing about the episode is the parallel to Earth society is way too forced. Kirk appears in the end holding a distorted version of our own Consitution not to mention the flag of the USA! Kirk even reads the familiar preamble! I can buy the duplicate Earth device this series used only so far, and this episode jumps right over that line into plain stupidity,

LES:  The second season was chock full of great episodes....hmmmmm
Difficult choices....I could've gone with "Amok Time" where Mr. Spock endures the Ponn Far.....or the Trouble with Tribbles(Too obvious..everybody says that's their favorite episode...well  I'm not just any other Trekker LOL!), or The Immunity Syndrome, where the Enterprise is sucked into a giant space amoeba.....I almost went with "A Piece of the Action" for it's humorous dialoge from right out of "Guys and Dolls."  

But I decided to pick "By any other Name," 

as my favorite 2nd season episode.  In this one, beings called Kelvans from the Andromeda Galaxy hijack the Enterprise, reduce most of the crew into geometric objects(that are easily crushed to powder), modify the ships engines to make her faster and attempt to get back home.

What makes this episode great comes right after Mr. Spock deduces that the Kelvans in assuming human form to fit in the corridors of The Enterprise, are inexperienced in dealing with human emotional weaknesses.  The Enterprise 4(Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scott), acting as a team systematically exploit different human frailties on the Kelvans individually.

McCoy begins giving one of them regular shots of adrenaline(claiming it's a nutritional suplement) that will have him bouncing off the walls....

Spock begins sowing the seeds of doubt in the mind of the leader regarding the loyalties of his crew

Kirk, of course, starts seducing the show's requisite female alien

And Scotty, in hands down, the funniest sequence of the entire show's run, attempts to drink the last one under the table.  "This is Sauri....Sau...Sarian....*sniffs bottle*....eyes lose focus and he shakes his head.  Smiles and nods..."It's Green." LMAO!

It's a great Trek episode filled with drama, suspense, humor and fun.

The Worst episode is "The Apple"

In this one, The Enterprise landing party explores a planet like a tropical paradise....that is also lethal to redshirts....(See killed by poison dart throwing plants, explosive rocks and lightning bolts)  They can't beam back to the ship as a mysterious force is draining it of power.  

Kirk leads them to a native village where they discover a primitive society that worships a being called VAAL (VAAL MOTHERFUCKER VAAAAAAAL!!!-sorry, couldn't resist LOL!)  They feed it at a structure that resembles a monster's head, and it provides them with all their needs-providing they live in abstinance.

Mr Chekov and girl crewmember of the week sneak off to fool around a little and the naitives see and then emulate their actions.....which wakes VAAL up and he instructs the natives to kill the intruders.  In the fight, Kirk has Mr. Scott fire the ship's phasers at the VAAL structure and saves the ship.

Mr Spock contemplates if having freed them of their "God's" sheltering, if their actions weren't like giving them the "Apple" from the tree of knowledge as depicted in the Bible.

It's hard to pinpoint what makes this a bad episode...whether it's the ridiculous tribal makeup and costumes of the natives...or their nauseating naivetee....or the sacherine love scene with Chekov....it all adds up to an episode that was just kind of annoying and easily forgettable.
RichB: Wow, disagree! Seriously though let's talk about these episodes. I discussed The Apple a few months ago and the problem with it, to me, is the pacing. There is just so much filler that it bogs the episode down. That scene with Chekov and Yeoman whateverhername is is so boring, especially since we don't care about their relationship. I fast forward that part every time I watch the episode. But, this episode is watchable to me for the most part.

By Any Other Name disturbed me as a kid. The takeover of the Enterprise and the scene where the crew are turned into little sugar cubes was just unsettling. Even the scene with Scotty, yeah it's funny but watching Scotty drink himself to the point of passing out....I don't know, just didn't work for me. So no this episode is not the worst but it has never been a favorite. I do like the one moment where Kirk is exasperated at the situation, when he slams his fist down talking about how the crew has been turned into sugar cubes is a small but powerful moment. 

LES:  That's ok.  Civil debate is never a bad thing in my book.  Perhaps you don't agree with my reasons for not liking The Apple, but out of all the episodes in season 2......it just didn't measure up to the rest of them IMO.....

And sure By Any Other Name is disturbing.  That's the point of it.  Kirk and the gang face a threat that is very disturbing and it takes them all to the brink of frustration and despair.  The scene where the Enterprise is passing through the galactic barrier and Scotty's rigged the ship to explode in it on Kirk's orders is intense and suspenseful.  That's what makes the comical scenes so great.  They're a needed stress release that work well advancing the story.  However, I respect your opinions to disagree with me if you didn't like it, my friend.

ANNNNNND on to season 3, the season that the FANS were responsible for bringing about....
RichB:Yeah, I guess we had to touch upon this sooner or later. You're right of course, the show was going to be cancelled after season 2 but a massive letter writing campaign saved it. Think about that for a second. this was ages before things like the internet. People actually wrote in and in such volumes it actually convinced NBC not to cancel the show. The network came on the air and begged people to stop writing, saying Star Trek lives!

Unfortunately the network decided to kill the show at the same time. It gave them a death slot on Friday night, and slashed the budget. As a result many of season 3's episodes were cheaply made. BUT there were some good shows if you can overlook that. Enterprise Incident, Spectre of the Gun, Is There in Truth No Beauty? were all decent stories.

Favorite I think would be The Tholian Web. 

There is just something about this episode which really makes it feel like a superior show. The amazing thing is Kirk is hardly in it. He disappears after act 1 and is presumed dead. Spock is left in charge, but rather than leave the area he defiantly stays to find his friend and clashes with the Tholians.

The heart of the episode is the Spock/McCoy relationship. Of course that is one of the major elements of the series but here we see what happens when you take Kirk out, who is the calm voice of reason.

It's also a great episode for the supporting cast who all get some decent work to do. Even the special effects are above par especially for season 3. The remastered version is almost identical, that's how good the effects were. Great episode!

What in the world could I pick for worst? Spock's Brain was so bad it's actually fun to watch. Then you have And the Children Shall Lead which was so bad, well, it's just bad. I think I have to go with the consensus on this one. My pick for worst is "The Way to Eden". 

It just fails on every possible level. The endless musical numbers, the plodding pace, and the love story for Chekov is so boring. It was originally going to be a McCoy story about his daughter, and I wish it had stayed that way.

I imagine this episode was relevant in the 60's, but man is it bad today and it remains one of the few episodes I just refuse to watch. I can take almost any episode and find something I like, even Requiem for Methuselah which sucks, but this one is just dreadful.

LES:  Yeah, no doubt about it, the fans won....then lost....but ultimately won when The Motion Picture debuted and sparked a successful series of films and sequel tv series.  so  to the arrogantly stupid network executives at NBC for trying to kill this show.

Moving on.  Yeah, season 3......

Without question, the episode that impressed me the most was "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."  

It was ground breaking in its day for exploring the concepts of racism in a unique fashion.  In this episode, the Enterprise captures an alien attempting to steal a Federation shuttlecraft who has a face that's white on the right side and black on the left side.  They soon encounter another alien from the same planet who's pursuing him.  The brilliant comment on racism?  His face is the opposite.  It's black on the right side and white on the left side.  They see each other as inferior and their respective factions of the planet Cheron have been fighting a civil war over their physical differences.

What makes this episode stand out for me is the acting of Frank Gorshin as Commisioner Bele(black on the right) and Lou Antonio as fugitive/resistance fighter Lokai(white on the right), Kirk's attempts to make them see reason amidst their bigotry and the greatest tension/suspense scene in the show's history with Kirk's setting the ship to self-destruct to break Bele's mental control of Enterprise's course when they need to save a billion inhabitants on the planet Arianus.  In the end, Bele and Lokai discover they are the only survivors of a war that killed every last citizen of their world.  Do they give up their hatred?......I'm not spoiling the ending.  Go see this episode now, my friends. 

The worst episode for me was "The Cloud Miners."

(Since you already chose "The Way to Eden," which is a worse episode than this one...it's my second least favorite episode).....anyway.......

The show can be summoned up in 1 sentence:  Horrible Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" rip-off.  Beyond that, terrible dialogue and even worse acting...Even Shatner can't pull off these lines.....

And so, that brings us to the end of The Original Series of Star Trek.  I'd like to thank richb for collaborating with me on this blog.  Look for our follow up collaborations where we give our attention to Star Trek:  The Next Generation, Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, Star Trek:  Voyager and if I ever get around to finishing it, Enterprise.

RichB:I agree that was a close second. What they did to Spock's character in that episode was an insult.  Anyway, this was fun my friend, look forward to doing Next Gen because that will be a wee bit tougher 

LES:  OH, without question...when TNG was good, it was great, and when it was bad.....OMG! LOL!

And thanks Manic Fans for giving us some of your time as well.  Did we miss your favorite/most hated episode?  We'd love to know what those episodes were, my friends.  Peace.