3. “The City on the Edge of Forever”
I don’t think it would be particularly hard to argue that this is the best episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. I’d say it’s also one of the best episodes in the entire franchise. “The City on the Edge of Forever” not only distills the philosophy and ethos of Star Trek clearly and succinctly, it is also an extremely compelling 50 minutes of television drama.
“The City on the Edge of Forever” is a time travel episode in which Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy find themselves in 1930s New York City at the height of the Great Depression. While stuck in the 20th Century, Kirk meets and falls in love with Edith Keeler, a social worker. Unfortunately, returning to the 23rd Century will require Kirk to make a crucial decision.
The reason I would wait to show this episode to a new fan after the previous two is just that it’s pretty heavy. Along with the lighter, more adventurous episodes listed previously, this episode would (hopefully) convince people to watch more Star Trek, but it may also require a bit of time to process. If you’re doing a marathon, you wouldn’t want to jump into another episode right away.
With this episode, along with the other two, I think that a new fan would get a fairly good sense of what the original Star Trek is all about. If, after these episodes, you’re desperate to watch more right away, though, I would highly recommend “Space Seed,” “I, Mudd,” “Court Martial,” “The Ultimate Computer,” “Balance of Terror,” and “The Squire of Gothos.”
Of course, there are many, many more episodes of besides those listed here, but these should get you started, assuming you don’t just start from the beginning. No matter what order you watch it, though, the important thing is to have fun watching Star Trek, right?