TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name @lemmy.world

1y ago

What is your all-time favorite episode of star trek?

It can be from any series, and if you want to pick a favorite from each show go ahead.

Picture very much related.

89 comments

It's not necessarily my favorite episode but it pops up always when I think of ST
It's voyagers episode where they observe the planet which is in its own time pocket, so the whole evolution of the society happens in days from voys perspective
- That's a good one, and I can't wait to see it again since I'm going through the shows with my wife (her first viewing of any of them)
  The doctor beaming down for "just a minute" and being there for some ridiculous amount of time, I can't remember exactly how long.
  Great episode.
  
  3 years. He was down there long enough to become a fan of a local sports team and chats up the astronaut about it when he gets back.
- When I think of TNG, the first episode I think of is Yesterday's Enterprise.
  
  Imagine having Guinan look at you and say "your entire existence is just.... wrong"
- Your comment would please the Ground Shaker

It's a really good episode in terms of a basic story and really good acting, but if you think about it, its both a really bad way of memorializing a civilization and a horrible thing to do to a person. They could have put the entire library of their civilization into that probe, but instead they decided to make a device to make a person live an imaginary life and then have to live with the loss of a family that he never actually met in the real world and it all felt far more real than anything the holodeck could do.
- You make good points, and even bring up a point I hadn't really considered fully. But did they not put their knowledge base and other things into the probe? I vaguely remember the people in the Memory World saying they did, and the flute was a personal touch added near the end.
  If they had the means to, they could have sent out dozensof probes (not likely, resources didn't seem to be abundant) in all directions, some broadcasting low signals with their story, some just deep storage info crypts. That way they maximized their potential for discovery.
  It's also possible the only reason Picard had physical issues with the exchange due to incompatible biology, but without that being stated in the show directly.... Its a reach.
  Still my favorite though.
- Also, my all-time favorite episode of Star Trek would have to be-
  
  Star Trek: Jersey Shore Leave
  The Real Housewives of Deep Space 9
- Okay but.. life is pain, and they all died, every single last one of them, so they gave him the "gift" of their particular pain, I guess? :-P And speaking of pain, that other image (shudder), I'm going to have nightmares tonight I suppose:-P.
- I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think it's the kind of technology that would change a civilization. They probably had games where you could spend weeks in a fantasy world in only the blink of an eye. It would be awesome. And probably normal enough eventually that they wouldn't think it weird to chronicle the end of the world that way
  
  They did not make that clear in the episode and I am a firm believer that if you have to spend time thinking about an explanation for why something is the way it is in a TV episode when the writers didn't seem to come up with a reason shows the episode is flawed.
- I always feel so sorry for Picard after this episode. He literally gets convinced that his life is not real, to the point that he buys the fantasy, embraces and loves the fantasy. Then when he sees some fulfillment it gets taken away and he gets told that it was not real. He may have never wanted a family in his real life, but he got one he loved them so much....
  It was a great episode but boy it cut really deep when you started thinking about it.
  
  But on top of that, he gets to experience the loss of his entire family along with every single other person on his planet. But he's never actually met any of them and never will.

Tos: Balance of Terror
Snw: Quality of Mercy, Subspace Rhapsody
Ent: In a mirror,Darkly
Ds9: Sacrifice of Angels,
TNG: Tomorrow's Enterprise, All good things, Relics, The Best of both words
Vgr: Year of Hell
Prodigy: All the worlds a stage
Lower Deck : to many to list
- All good choices.
  I haven't gotten around to most of the new shows, but I look forward to the SNW episodes I've seen listed!

It would have to be "Chain of Command". there are FOUR lights
- Also up there for me. Easily top "handful" since I can't pick an actual order.
  When he admits he really did think he saw five.... I'm not crying, you're crying.

This seems like a cliché answer, but my favorite overall is The Measure of a Man. Granted, there is a lot I haven't seen (only pieces of DS9 and Voy, and none of the new stuff other than Lower Decks).
I just really like how it raises one specific issue without trying to skirt around it while dealing with it directly.
- I don't think that's cliche at all. It's an amazing episode and a great example of how science fiction is a mirror on humanity.
- The Measure of a Man
  DATA IS NOT PROPERTY
  He is a fully living sentient being. Full stop.
  
  Why couldn't they leave Data alone? He just wanted to feel!
  
  Glad we got that settled!
  
  ಠ_ಠ
- That episode has aged like the finest of wines, it's only gotten more prescient.

DS9 Q-Less. Sisko punches Q.
- Always a classic.
  Why bother debating, look where that gets Picard on the regular.
  It's on par with flat out saying "NO, WE ARE DONE WITH YOUR BULLSHIT, GO AWAY" And refusing to engage
- YOU HIT ME! Picard never hit me!
- And he never came back to bother him, either. All Picard had to do was punch him, apparently.

TOS 2x14 - Wolf in the Fold
Scotty’s been drinking and kills a hooker, but it’s totally not his fault.
- It's great how much they really leaned into that feeling of "modern navy" for a lot of things.
  Stories you'd expect to hear from sailors... when they shot certain scenes they tried to capture the feeling of submarine life...
  Also ~~rats~~ tribbles
- I used to go "Redjac! Redjac! Redjac! Rejac! Hahahahahahahaha!" when I was a kid and no one at school knew what the hell I was doing.

It's funny so many people picked Voyager episodes as their favorites. I remember when Voyager was supposedly "the bad Star Trek." I always liked it.
- I do remember people mocking DS9 and Voyager rather harshly, I wonder how my parent's old Official ^TMstar trek fan club group would weigh in? They used to discuss/debate the episodes while playing random games.
  
  People hated on TNG when it came out.
- Yeah, I'm slowly making my way through DS9 at the moment and haven't thought about Voyager at all. Now maybe I'll give it a second chance (only saw it when it was on TV).
- The issue with Voyager was that you could pretty much give any characters lines at the end of the show to any other character and it would still work. There was no real character arc, none of them grew. They were still basically the same people from the first episode.
  Don't get me wrong, they did have some phenomenal characters (The Doctor), but overall, it was just... meh.
  But hey, if you like it, you like it. It got seven seasons, so plenty of folks did.

TOS 1x28 The City on the Edge of Forever
TNG 2x09 The Measure of a Man
DS9 2x19 Blood Oath
VOY 4x12 Mortal Coil
ENT 2x03 Minefield
SNW 2x02 Ad Astra per Aspera
- Ad Astra per Aspera is easily among my favorite episodes of any Star Trek series.

Hard to pick just one but probably TNG 4x19 "The Nth Degree". Love a good Barclay episode.
- I love when Sci fi shows do the "person gets super duper smart" episodes.
  Star trek and Stargate are my two favorites with this trope.
  
  "No problem. Here's how you build one..." always makes me chuckle.
  
  I think my all time favourite line from Stargate is when Carter explains the Uncertainty Principle to an advanced alien who replies "oh yes, one of the misconceptions of simple physics".

One of my absolute favorites of all time is S5E18 [I think] of Voyager where the Doctor has to make a Sophie's choice and has a logic breakdown every time he tries to rationalize his decision and how his only course is to just push through to the next issue and not dwell on the past.
- That is definitely one of those "I'm not crying, you're crying!" episodes.
- They loved their ethical dilemmas.
  Edit: I WAS WRONG AND THINKING OF EPISODE 8 but I stand by my opinions of episode 8. I believe you are thinking of episode 11, where the doctor figures out Kim had brain surgery in the last few years, and disvocers that not only is the whole crew covering it up, they've all been covering up Ensign Jetal being the one who dies. It gives him the holomatrix equivalent of a psychotic break.
  Original: In my opinion, such information should be brutally opposed in the "planning to do bad thing for science" stages, but once the deed is done, the perpetrators are dealt with, and the information is just sitting there, destroying the information at that point feels wrong.
  The people who were harmed or died should never have been in that situation in the first place, but personally if it were me, I would rather the information be used to help whoever it can, and the person who tortured or killed me to obtain the information is disrupted. slowly.
  Torres is within her rights to not want the treatment.
  Doctor is within his rights to use the information he himself ethically obtained, since he had no knowledge of the crimes of a cardassian.
  Captain is within her rights to order the life of her crew be saved.
  Torres is still right to be extremely pissed at everyone involved for going against her wishes.
  Stand amongst the ashes of a trillion dead if honor matters.
  The silence is your answer
  
  I think you're thinking of a different episode, but that's also a good one.
  I thought OP was talking about the one where the Doctor saved Ensign Kim and not the woman, though both were equally wounded and had an equal chance of surviving - he had to pick one, he picked Kim, and couldn't stand the guilt of the decision. They tried to delete the memory, but that failed, so he spent weeks working through it.
  
  Get out of here Javik, you’re drunk

There are so many, it's hard to say. Can I pick a favorite season?
DS9 Season 4:
E2 - The Visitor
E8 - Little Green Men
E10 - Our Man Bashir
E11 - Homefront
E12 - Paradise Lost
E16 - Bar Association
E18 - Rules of Engagement
E25 - Body Parts
- Season 4 really is where DS9 starts smashing it out of the park isn't it.
- Is "our man Bashir" the one where we meet the genetically modified people? I love that one, and the one where the come back "that's a stupid question" kills me.
  https://youtu.be/daYKTvCBNz8?si=6W4NSM7l2xsk6f4n
  
  Our Man Bashir is the James Bond holodeck episode.
- Strong season!
  Honestly I don't think I could pick just one episode from DS9. Or Voyager. Or lower decks. Or....
  I'd say I have a handful of favorites for each of those that kind of jumble around.

This was definitely my favorite episode from TNG.
I don't have a favorite from DS9. It's a toss up between the one where Jake is an old writer trying to find his dad, and the few episodes where Sisko is in the 40's with the rest of the crew working as writers. I guess DS9 really liked writing themed episodes.
- Writers write what they know.

I liked the ds9 episode where they were playing baseball. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"

Voyager Counterpoint, where Janeway and the Inspector flirt tactically, and she beats him with science in the end. It very narrowly beats out Year of Hell.
I also really like Old Friends, New Planets, the season finale of the most recent season of Lower Decks. I don't think it beats the other two, but it came damn close

Deep Space 9, Season 1, Episode 19. Duet.
The acting, the plot, the character development. The ethical struggle in the episode and its resolution and the clear parallels to real world problems. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it, because it unfurls in such a wonderful way that needs to be seen rather than summarized.
- "He's Cardassian. That's reason enough."
  "No!..... It's not...."
  Good choice.
  
  "You have no idea what it's like to be a coward." So much packed into that line: filled with self-hatred and shame, and also respect and admiration for the person in front of him and the people she sacrificed so much for.
  I would pay a lot of money to see a political series focused on a sort of Cardassian Reconstruction era. I really ought to read some of the books.

So hard to choose. I can tell you what isn't my favorite is Darmok. I didn't mind the episode..but when you think about it, it makes no logical sense. A lot of people like to hype that episode up, but the reality is society could never function that way.
But but, if I post a meme gif everyone understands it! Sure, but try to explain to someone how to make a semiconductor using only memes. It doesn't work. A species could communicate on a casual level like that, but they'd all still have to understand normal language.
- There's no way you could possibly develop advanced science and technology with a language based entirely on metaphor. Also, how do you have a language based on metaphorical references to old stories when you can only tell those stories metaphorically too?
  
  You would need an ancient society with perfect memories to even be able to get to the point of "language of metaphors" and a metaphor for everything you could need.
  Languages evolve over time, so I like to think that's what happened here.
- Now I kind of want to try, start with an "I hate sand" then a ... I don't know how to make the wafer, heat? "This is fine". Then shadow puppets? with a laser light show?
  Profit.

Voyager 5.17 "Course: oblivion"
Hell of an ending.
- That episode always made me feel bad for the other crew. They didn't ask to be there, they had no way to know about their origin, but it didn't matter even a little. The ending is a bit of a gut punch.

I really enjoyed the memed episode, but A Fistful of Datas was S Tier.

In the pale moonlight.
It humanizes Starfleet like no other episode.
- "I can live with it. "
  Good choice!

wakes up after an entire life time
"Lemme go again, I think I missed a secret area."

Memes are supposed to make us laugh, not cry! 😭

To people who think the Orville is better : it doesn’t have nearly the amount of memes or dedicated subs. Checkmate.

TOS, third season, episode 8: For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
I also love The Cloud Minders from the same season (episode 21), but that first one gets me every time, I have no idea why.
EDITED TO ADD: I also really like most of the SNW episodes, but haven't seen them enough times to have a clear favorite. Possibly Ad Astra Per Aspera, or Charades, lol.

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