Most memorable unsung ST episode?

[El Moose Monstero]

I imagine most of us would automatically list the tv movies and the highly praised episodes as the most memorable, Best of Both Worlds, Yesterday's Enterprise, City on the edge of Forever, The Die is Cast, etc etc. But what are the episodes which don't generally get their praises sung which appeal to you for some reason or stay in your memory?

The one which springs to mind out of the TNG stuff is possibily titled 'Darmok', where Picard and a Captain who talks in metaphor have to fight some sort of creature on a planet. Not sure why, but aside from the big movie episodes, this one stays in my mind, I can still remember so many of the lines from it. Possibily it appealed because it was Picard on his own, surviving and making contact and epitomising the whole 'discover new life and new civilisations' bit.

[Bounty]

The Sound of Her Voice (DS9). A quiet, moving episode with a gut-wrenching twist at the end.

[Stofsk]

"City on the Edge of Forever" is memorable only due to the massive clusterfuck that resulted from Roddenberry's bullshit; the episode that aired was really goddamn boring, but the original Ellison script blew my whistle.

Hehehe... oh boy, am I asking for it.

For me, I find a lot of the TOS episodes to be memorable but unsung. The "Conscience of the King" was one of my favourites, because it showed something important: atrocities take place in the Federation.

For TNG I find "Masks" to be very memorable. Yes, the "Alien Artifact that Fucks Around With the Ship" motif is tiresome, but I loved the episode because it gave us a brief glimpse at a alien mythology. And it allowed Brent Spiner to act.

For DS9, "The Wire" was probably the best Garak episode they ever did. But for most people, they select "In the Pale Moonlight" as their favourite episode with Garak in it - not realising there's a difference between a Garak episode and an episode with Garak in it. Besides, "The Wire" was in a season devoid of those bloody Jem'hadar Wars and assorted bullshit. DS9 was a good show in the beginning.

[Tsyroc]

"City on the Edge of Forever" is memorable only due to the massive clusterfuck that resulted from Roddenberry's bullshit; the episode that aired was really goddamn boring, but the original Ellison script blew my whistle.

Hehehe... oh boy, am I asking for it.

Then I'll throw in that I've never liked that episode either.

My favorite TOS episode has always been the one with the Salt Vampire becuase it scared the crap out of me as a kid.

Not really unsung all that much but I liked the Circle Trilogy from one of DS9's early season, when most people hated the show for being different than TNG. I actually liked the politics and religion in the show because after so many years of unrealistic humans, psycho and technobable it was nice to see people who were fighting over very human type things. Plus it had Frank Langella as Minister Jaro.

[Stofsk]

Then I'll throw in that I've never liked that episode either.

Harlan Ellison really wrote a stunning and beautiful screenplay. The screened episode doesn't do it justice. You may thank the egotistical arsehole known as Gene Roddenberry for that one.

Not really unsung all that much but I liked the Circle Trilogy from one of DS9's early season, when most people hated the show for being different than TNG. I actually liked the politics and religion in the show because after so many years of unrealistic humans, psycho and technobable it was nice to see people who were fighting over very human type things. Plus it had Frank Langella as Minister Jaro.

Agreed, and I can't believe I missed this one. The Circle Trilogy is my favourite DS9 story. Bar none. It is actually relevant to the premise of the show, in a way that nothing else from "Way of the Warrior" onwards ever came close to achieving. Many people bagged DS9 for concentrating on the Bajorans and their culture, but really it was the heart of the show. By the end, they had conveniently forgotten the fact the show was solely about restoring this planetary culture to some form of self-reliance, and enable it to join the interstellar community as a valued member.

Goddamn it, I loved DS9 in the first years. Then they had to make Sisko bald and a pirate. "Yargh!", indeed.

[Dahak]

I really like "The Face of the Enemy" for some reasons.
I was always partial for Romulans.

[Uraniun235]

I think Gambit is one of the best TNG episodes - ironically, for a Season 7 episode (the only good S7 episode, IMO) there was minimal angst-drama, and there wasn't too much technobabble. Plus, the episode benefited from the superior production quality of the later seasons.

[Patrick Degan]

"Operation Annihilate". Kirk watches what pretty much is the rest of his family being wiped out before his eyes, watches his best friend succumb to the parasites which killed his brother and sister-in-law, and on top of that is faced with the possible decision to kill over a million people to prevent the spread of the parasites infesting Deneva to the galaxy at large.

Also, Kirk's grief in that one wasn't entirely acting: William Shatner had just buried his father at the time that episode was shot.

[Dennis Toy]

me it would be...


Time Squared (TNG) a great closed episode of TNG with no planet, no guest stars, just a mystery that grows until the twist.

Frame of Mind( TNG ) riker stands out in this surreal and twilight zonish episode.

The Void ( Voy) this episode is an irony because this is what voyager should have been like.

[The Silence and I]

I find "Thine Own Self" (TNG) is one of those episodes that stick with me that no one talks about much.

[Silver Jedi]

I have always liked The Inner Light

[Crazedwraith]

One of Seven's early VOY episodes. "Prey" IIRC. Seven ends up blasting a 8472 creature and gets yelled at for it. Seven then proceeds to give a nice rant about the hypocrisy of that.

[Quadlok]

I didn't like "City on the Edge of Forever" either.

"Little Green Men" (DS9) was the best comedy episode. The TNG episode "First Contact" (possibly not the name, but that's what it was) was also very good, as it was really the only time we got to see how the Federation introduces itself to worlds that are just achieving warp.

[SCVN 2812]

One of Seven's early VOY episodes. "Prey" IIRC. Seven ends up blasting a 8472 creature and gets yelled at for it. Seven then proceeds to give a nice rant about the hypocrisy of that.

Skin tight spandex aside, they did some pretty good stuff with the character the first half season or so she was on the show. Though this is from very vague memory, she was very alien at first as you would expect a recently unplugged Borg to be, they humanized her entirely too fast.

[Genii Lodus]

Stofsk - do you have a link to the original version of the script?

Sounds very interesting.

I'm quite partial to Masks and First Contact especially the latter because it actually shows the Prime Directive working rather than being ignored because on some levels it is a morally flawed premise.

[Stofsk]

Stofsk - do you have a link to the original version of the script?

Sounds very interesting.

Nope. Even if I did, I would still end up buying it. It is quality work.

[Jarl Sven]

of the less famous episodes I always liked "By Any Other Name" (TOS)

Not only because of the Eddy Murphy parody of it

but also because of the famous Scotty vrs Alien drinking match

"It's....it's green."

[Jalinth]

Goddamn it, I loved DS9 in the first years. Then they had to make Sisko bald and a pirate. "Yargh!", indeed.

Another politics lover . The first seasons were great. Showed some great backstabbing, especially the combination of the church and state. The entire Dominion bits I couldn't care less about. I'd have substituted more Cardassian Bajoran conflict instead.

[Stofsk]

That entire episode was fucking brilliant.

The first half is full of despair as Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty realise they're the only members of the crew who are still alive, while the rest of the ship has been taken over by hideously powerful alien invaders from another galaxy. The ship's crew have all been turned into some kind of weird paper mache cube thing (not a cube, but decahexapoxafuckerhedron thing... some weird shape). They even consider blowing up the ship and killing themselves to prevent the takeover. You're thinking "Holy shit, how the hell are they going to get out of this one?"

Then they figure out a plan. A very good plan.

"Scotty, you get one of them drunk. Bones, dope one of the others up with an adreno-meth cocktail. Spock, pick them apart mercilessly with your Logic. I'm gonna score some tail and beat up that babe's boyfriend. Initiate."

[Stofsk]

Goddamn it, I loved DS9 in the first years. Then they had to make Sisko bald and a pirate. "Yargh!", indeed.

Another politics lover . The first seasons were great. Showed some great backstabbing, especially the combination of the church and state. The entire Dominion bits I couldn't care less about. I'd have substituted more Cardassian Bajoran conflict instead.

So was I, in fact I would go so far as to say the Dominion made the show unwatchable for me. I would have preferred to have the central conflict take place between the Maquis and the Cardassians, but evidentally... that didn't end up happening.

I just don't like the Dominion, the execution of the war, and how the writers completely ignored the central premise of the show - to bring the Bajorans into the Federation. By the end, it had become a war story (nothing too bad with that, except they handled the writing and execution abysmally), paired up with soap opera bullshit ("Hi! I'm Cute Dax, as opposed to Hot Dax, who was killed for bullshit reasons. Yes, in Star Trek, Dead means 'mild discomfort and transplant into a new body'. Oh hi Worf! Let's have sex. Wow, that was great. Oh wait, I really love Bashir. Sorry old Frown Face.") then for no reason at all, we had Ben Kenobi- er, Sisko, become a Force using hero- er, emissary for the Force- er, the Prophets. When Hot Dax died, he all but said "I feel... a great disturbance in the Force..." Darth Dukat turned into a laughing stock of himself.

For shame.

[Chris OFarrell]

Voyager: Latent Image.

I love that episode, a great Doctor episode. But its best when Seven takes Janeway to task and verbaly BTICHSLAPS her for her attitude against him, which she still deep down maintains despite how he has grown.

It was one of the times Seven pulled Janeways rightious attitude up short and slapped her silly, able to walk out of the room with Janeway just standing there, her mouth making small 'o' shapes but unable to couter her points.

[Dennis Toy]

Voyager: Latent Image.

I love that episode, a great Doctor episode. But its best when Seven takes Janeway to task and verbaly BTICHSLAPS her for her attitude against him, which she still deep down maintains despite how he has grown.

It was one of the times Seven pulled Janeways rightious attitude up short and slapped her silly, able to walk out of the room with Janeway just standing there, her mouth making small 'o' shapes but unable to couter her points.

also like "Prey" when Seven bitchslapped Janeway for her attitude in not allowing Species 8472 to be sent to the Hirogen to save the ship from attack, this despite the fact that Species 8472 had regenerated and fought the hirogen.

[Gil Hamilton]

The one which springs to mind out of the TNG stuff is possibily titled 'Darmok', where Picard and a Captain who talks in metaphor have to fight some sort of creature on a planet. Not sure why, but aside from the big movie episodes, this one stays in my mind, I can still remember so many of the lines from it. Possibily it appealed because it was Picard on his own, surviving and making contact and epitomising the whole 'discover new life and new civilisations' bit.

"Darmok" was better when it was the movie "Enemy Mine".

[Chris OFarrell]

Voyager: Latent Image.

I love that episode, a great Doctor episode. But its best when Seven takes Janeway to task and verbaly BTICHSLAPS her for her attitude against him, which she still deep down maintains despite how he has grown.

It was one of the times Seven pulled Janeways rightious attitude up short and slapped her silly, able to walk out of the room with Janeway just standing there, her mouth making small 'o' shapes but unable to couter her points.

also like "Prey" when Seven bitchslapped Janeway for her attitude in not allowing Species 8472 to be sent to the Hirogen to save the ship from attack, this despite the fact that Species 8472 had regenerated and fought the hirogen.

Its ok, but I'd dispute that Seven did the right thing there. Granted Janeway was in her rightous mode, but the 8472 was being hunted for sport by the Hirogen and Janeway was simply trying to send it home. If Seven had simply co-operated in the first place and opened the portal for Janeway, none of this would have happened in the first place.

[Dennis Toy]

Its ok, but I'd dispute that Seven did the right thing there. Granted Janeway was in her rightous mode, but the 8472 was being hunted for sport by the Hirogen and Janeway was simply trying to send it home. If Seven had simply co-operated in the first place and opened the portal for Janeway, none of this would have happened in the first place.

Remember that Species 8472 had regenerated and attacked the Hirogen. He forfeited his rights when he did.