Gene Roddenberry's son reveals episode that affected him the most

Star Trek seemingly has an episode for everyone to sink their teeth into. With so many seasons, series, and concepts explored throughout the franchise's lifespan, it's easy to see how a person can gravitate to one episode over another. Each one of us has an episode that still lingers in us, even years after watching it. For Rod Roddenberry, the son of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett, his may surprise some.

See, for Rod, he was The Next Generation kid, telling folks during an AMA on Reddit that his preferred series was the follow-up Star Trek series. That said, there was one episode from the Original Series that seems to resonate with him above all else.

That episode is one of the better ones from the franchise, "The Devil in the Dark". The fourth-to-last episode of season one sees James Kirk and Spock encounter a creature in the caverns of an alien planet. Initially thinking it's hostile, the crew of the Enterprise soon learns that it's just a mother looking to protect its children.

It's an episode that tries to tell you that looks can be deceiving. Its message stuck with Rod, who picked it as not only his favorite episode but the one that resonated the most with him, saying (via SlashFilms);

""I was blown away with the antagonist, a rock monster, who turned out to simply be misunderstood, and it was a mother protecting its young and the humans unknowingly were killing its children. I love the twist, recognizing that we were the devil in the dark.""

Star Trek episodes like this one tend to be prolific years, even decades later. It's the kind of episode that teaches an important lesson through a very unique story. It's the kind of storytelling many Star Trek fans want the franchise to go back to and focus more on. It's the kind of episodes that stick with fans the most for a reason.

They're timeless for a reason because the messages there within are some of the most important, meaningful, and recurring ones that matter the most.