Star Trek.com lists their favorite episodes and we have questions.
If you’re a newer fan of Star Trek, maybe hopping on board with the debut of Discovery, you may be surprised to know that most of Star Trek’s best episodes are stand-alone series. The franchise was built on story-of-the-week drama and alien-of-the-week adventure. Trek is also known for its two-parters and more episodic storytelling as well. It’s a unique franchise, being able to encompass so many different ideas and desires at the same time across multiple series.
So it’s not at all surprising that Star Trek.com is looking at the episodes they feel are the best of the stand-alone variety. While Strange New Worlds went back to that format, it appears as though none of them made the list. Likewise the same with any of the other Nu Trek episodes.
All of these episodes, allegedly, did not follow up on the events within the story at any other point in the franchise’s run. So they get to be celebrated with this unique honor. So what episodes made it?
- The Original Series – The City on the Edge of Forever
- The Original Series – The Rouble With Tribbles
- The Next Generation – Cause and Effect
- The Next Generation – Rascals
- Deep Space Nine – Duet
- Deep Space Nine – The Visitor
- Voyager – Tuvix
- Voyager – Threshold
- Enterprise – Carbon Creek
Voyager’s Threshold is not a great episode and that’s why it’s great
Seeing Threshold on any “best of list” is wild. It’s not a particularly good episode and ends with Tom Paris and Kathryn Janeway as salamanders, who end up mating and creating offspring that are left behind.
If there’s ever a Voyager movie, those children seeking revenge is the only logical choice for a story.
It’s a bad episode, but it’s so bad it falls into campiness at times and that campiness is really interesting. Seeing how it ends and re-watching it knowing where the story is going is a whole new experience and will make you laugh at some point nearly every time.
No, it’s not a “best of” episode by any means but it’s so bad it’s good and that makes it worth the watch.