Best:
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Star Trek
rcocean3 — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 05:15 PM)
Best:
Balance of Terror
Mirror Mirror
The troubles with tribbles
Space Seed
The Doomsday Machine
Errand of Mercy
City on the Edge of forever
Worst:
Catspaw
And the Little Child shall Lead
This way to Eden
The Alternative Factor
Omega Glory
Mark of Gideon
The Apple -
RIP_IMDb — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 06:34 PM)
Worst
:
7. "
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
".
6. "
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
".
5. "
Charlie X
".
4. "
Miri
". < Worst of the first season, YES even worse than "
The Alternative Factor
".
3. "
The Mark of Gideon
" and "
The Empath
". < Tied. The two most-boring and dull episodes.
2. "
The Way to Eden
".- "
And the Children Shall Lead
".
No second-season episode ranks among the seven worst. And "
Spock
'
s
Brain
" isn't among the seven worst either.
Best
: - "
The Cage
", but NOT "
The Menagerie
". - "
The Ultimate Computer
". - "
Amok Time
" - "
Where No Man Has Gone Before
" - "
The Corbomite Maneuver
" - "
The Doomsday Machine
". - "
Balance of Terror
" and "
Mirror
,
Mirror
" Tied.
No third-season episode ranks among the seven best.
I'll let you know when I come-up with a new signature,
.
- "
-
jbaker1-2 — 2 years ago(October 15, 2023 06:54 PM)
Spock's Brain
is most assuredly among the seven worst. It may even be #1.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it. -
wrs6565 — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 08:10 PM)
I'm a newcomer to Trek and just finished binging TOS, first time ever watching it, in fact!
Best:
The City On The Edge Of Forever
Space Seed
The Corbomite Maneuver
The Trouble With Tribbles
Journey To Babel
Spectre Of The Gun (silly, but I liked it)
Balance Of Terror
Worst:
Spock's Brain (and brain, what is brain!)
The Alternative Factor
Arena (sorry, fansI get that there's some interesting themes and such in this one, and it isn't poorly paced, but the majority of the episode is, in fact, William Shatner getting into a lame fist fight with a wheezing guy in an insanely stupid-looking lizard suit)
Plato's Stepchildren
And The Children Shall Lead Them
By Any Other Name (crappy rehash of themes that were done better in earlier episodes like "Space Seed")
Assignment: Earth (it probably ought to be studied, though.) -
jbaker1-2 — 3 years ago(November 01, 2022 10:11 AM)
Anyone who types "ur" for "you are" has no room to call anyone else a retard.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it. -
jxh13 — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 04:11 AM)
That's a darned good list for a first-time viewer; thanks for posting, and I'm glad you enjoyed the series.
You'll forgive older fans for liking "Arena." In the 60s, the rubber lizard suit was a hallmark of great television. I watched "Arena" again a couple of weekends ago, and had a blast.
"By Any Other Name" has some weak moments, but fans tend to like to for the themes of "humanity", especially Scotty drinking the alien Tomar under the table. (What does it mean to be "human?" Light necking, a jealous rage, irritation, and overindulging in alcohol.) -
sukhisoo — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 08:58 AM)
Nice list, actually.
I admit that I am a big fan of Arena. This hearkens back to my pre-teen days when I saw this on TV. Kirk being chased down by a knife-wielding giant lizard certainly captured my imagination. This episode single handedly made me a fan of the show, so I will always have a nostalgic fondness for it. Still, your reasons for not liking it are valid.
By Any Other Name is one that I wasn't fond of as a younger viewer. It grew on me, though. While I will never consider the episode a classic, the drinking scene is iconic. It's a goofy fun episode.
Two episodes that I think deserve more time on worst of lists are "The Lights of Zetar" and "The Mark of Gideon". The former has an intriguing premise but drags. The latter, while having the germ of an important social message, is ludicrous on several levels. -
BiffGG — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 09:59 AM)
Those of us that grew up during the 1960's or 1970's have no problem with the visual "shorthand" of plastic ships hung off of a string or monsters that were made from latex. The story mattered the most to us. I certainly bought in as far as imagination is concerned with the Gorn. Most of certainly would rank "The Doomsday Machine" as a poor episode if we were preoccupied with the construction of the Planet Killer. It was worse earlier than the days of the original Star Trek when most people listened to radio for dramatic programming and had to build the ships and aliens with their minds. Roddenberry had stated during the 1970's he enjoyed putting certain aspects of the old radio shows into ST to have the viewer construct some of the background in their mind. Too bad GR did not live long enough to see CGI and to see if CGI would alter his opinion.
-
sukhisoo — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 10:17 AM)
It actually helped that I watched it on a small black and white TV. It hid the flaws, but still allowed the unusual characters, monsters, and devices to come through. I didn't understand the concept of "redshirt" until much much later.
-
Eric-62-2 — 9 years ago(July 21, 2016 10:32 AM)
I should have added "By Any Other Name" to the list of worst. Here is an episode wildly uneven in tone that veers from seriousness to low comedy in its second half and has as its resolution (1) the repetition of a STUPID cliche where the key to defeating these supposedly superior intellects beyond our level is to resort to "make him jealous" and then more appallingly (2) the episode ends with a kumbaya session with the guy who murdered one of Kirk's crew. You can't shift the blame to Kirk as Rojan did earlier on responsibility, he was still the one who performed the murder and we're supposed to just forget that? I sure would love to see Kirk explain to the Federation that they should make allowances for those who murdered and were willing to murder other Federation personnel.
Of course forgetting all about crewmen who died along the way in an episode was something this show did a lot of. A rare exception and one that helps elevate the episode is Kirk's simple, "Jackson is dead" at the end of "Catspaw."
I will note that "Wink Of An Eye" is on many levels the same episode as "By Any Other Name" (even if its conceit was also ripped off from a "Wild Wild West" episode that Gene Coon had produced) but at least that one ended more believably with Kirk effectively telling the ones who were responsible for the death of one of his crew (Compton), "You're on your own" and not coming up with a solution for their plight. -
bjlevine — 9 years ago(July 21, 2016 10:40 AM)
Sorry, but Scotty and Tomar's scenes alone firmly lift that episode out of the worst category. Also, the scene where Kirk basically chickens out of destroying the ship is good. Makes Kirk all the more human.
Over 20,001 Tacos ReturnedAS GARBAGE! -
Eric-62-2 — 9 years ago(July 21, 2016 11:59 AM)
The Scotty-Tomar scene is funny as a scene but in the overall context of the episode it highlights its flaw of being wildly uneven. For me it's like having the barfight in "Trouble With Tribbles" in the second half of the "Doomsday Machine".
-
sukhisoo — 9 years ago(July 21, 2016 01:42 PM)
I'd rather watch "wildly uneven" than "uniformly bland" or "consistently bad", but that's just me.
By Any Other Name has a plethora of fun moments even these moments don't entirely meld together into a coherent whole. -
jbaker1-2 — 3 years ago(October 10, 2022 10:44 AM)
If you're going to call someone else a moron, it would do wonders for your credibility if you'd at least make a token effort to not be a moron yourself.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it. -
jbaker1-2 — 3 years ago(November 01, 2022 10:12 AM)
No list of worst TOS episodes is complete without
The Omega Glory
.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it. -
stewie-3 — 9 years ago(July 16, 2016 10:21 PM)
I actually never saw Catspaw as a kid, for some reason. The first time I saw it, I was in my mid-20's, on Halloween night. I guess that was the perfect time to watch that particular episode. It's not considered one of the better Trek outings, but I do like the spooky quality it has.
One episode a lot of Trek fans seem to love that I just never got into was The Empath. Not sure what it is about that one, but I've never watched it the whole way through without channel surfing. That doesn't make it a bad ep, of course. Just not one I care for very much.