Best Star Trek episode, all series combined!

[Calhoun07]

What was your favorite single Star Trek episode out of the entire franchise, all four series combined? The single episode that stands heads and shoulders above any of the others in the other series?

My pick goes to the Visitor. It's a story of great sacrifice, and perhaps one of the most original Star Trek episodes I've ever seen. Of course, I have runners up, but I am just focusing on our absolute favorite for now. And for those of you who don't know, Visitor is from Deep Space Nine, where Jake witnesses his father's apparent demise and spends the rest of his life trying to get his father back in to the real world. One powerful episode, not to be missed.

[Joker85]

hmmm, thats hard!! I would have to say it is a tie between TNGs "Starship Mine" and DS9s "Trials and Tribble-ations" But I like alot of them so that is a hard decision. If I listed all my favorites we could be here all day:)

[James]

I agree with Joker85 that's a hard one!!

Not an episode as such, but I think Star Trek II is my favorite out of all of them. I think it's a beautifully scripted story which was the first to really bring the vunerabilty of age to Star Trek. Top performances from the villians and a beautiful ending from the crew. First story where the Enterprise gets hammered (something that then continued to occur in every Star Trek film). I remember the shock as the Enterprise is cut to ribbons. This sort of thing never happened to Kirk! What was going on?

I must admit, despite how much I despise Jake, that is an amusing episode. Excellent stuff and nice acting by the ToddMaster.
On the DS9 front, I loved the O'Brien story in which he had to spend a lifetime in a mind prison (I forget the name of the episode). I think he played that perfectly. The ending with Julian and Miles regarding the attempted suicide was sensitively handled too. Pity the effects of this episode were never really brought to light again.

Out of the Original Series.... soo many... Doomsday Machine, The Corbonite Maneuver, Wolf In The Fold.... great stuff. I think I'll stick Charlie X at the top. Great science fiction.

Voyager... any in which Neelix dies. I liked the one where they took his lungs away - I just wish they'd come back for the rest of him.

STTNG: Best Of Both Worlds. Borg when they were dangerous. Nice two parter. I loved watching those pompous Federation ships getting hammered. Made my day.

[Calhoun07]

Deep Space Nine sure has the best episodes out of all the series, IMO. The O'Brien mind prison one is a prime example. And the one where they found that planet where they had crash laned in the past and everybody on the planet was a decendant of the officers from Deep Space Nine was also a memorable one.

Best of Both Worlds is great for repeat watchings, but, man, there is nothing that can compare to watching it for the first time on TV at the end of the season. I saw it when it first ran, and that ending was so devastating! I could not believe it! I truly wondered if Picard was leaving the show. I could have seen TNG continue with Riker and Shelby. For three months, I was waiting to find out what happened.

[WeelyTM]

hmm, i dont have a single fav, but a short list of favs....

All good things..... (i liked the ships and the way they portrayed the future relations between races of the alpha quadrant)
Best of Both Worlds (Borg, simply put)
the series finale of DS9. ****in kickass space combat!!! other good space combat ones were the one where the klingons attack DS9 and the one where the dominion takes DS9, also Forture favors the Bold.
i like voyager, but its storyline was not as good as the others.
overall, my fav series is the next generation.... but DS9 has the best space combat scenes ever. never really cared for the original series, but i occasionally do watch them. All ST movies are kickass IMO. (ST:TMP wasnt great, but hey it was a good starting point)

[James]

WeelyTM:
All ST movies are kickass IMO. (ST:TMP wasnt great, but hey it was a good starting point)

yeah, I love the trek movies and have enjoyed them all (with the exception of Generations which was just a little too messy!!)

Star Trek II is my favourite and III as it continues on with the same massive character developments (Kirk stealing the Enterprise, Kirk destroying his ship for his friend, McCoy carrying Spock's brain (ahem - the irony!)... Trek IV is cool too... V is alright, although a little messy and VI is an enjoyable finale for the old cast.

First Contact was excellent (I love the Picard/Wolf confrontation on the bridge!!) and I personally enjoyed Insurrection (nice to have a softer Trek film for a change!!

As for TMP..... if only they had time to snip the SFX reel and it may have been more watchable...

May I also recommend McIntryre's novel adaptions of II,III and IV - they are worth a read and expand on the concepts considerably!!

[DarkAngel]

I'd have to name "Best of Both Worlds" as the best ever. Other notables were:

TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever"
TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise"
DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"
Voyager: "Scorpion"

As for some of my personal favorites:

Inter Arma Enum Silent Leges (or something like that)
Q Who
Sacrifice of Angels
In the Cards
Siege of AR-558 (again, not sure about the exact title)
What You Leave Behind
Inquisition
Caretaker
Shattered Mirror
Brothers

As for the movies, this is my order of preference, with 1. my favorite

1. First Contact
2. Wrath of Khan
3. Undiscovered Country
4. Voyage Home
5. Generations
6. Insurrection
7. Search for Spock
8. Final Frontier
9. Motion Picture

[Calhoun07]

First Contact is my favorite film too, and the only one I bought on DVD. (all the others will be released as Special Editions later. maybe four years later, but they will come, and in the meantime, I can survive with renting what I want to see.)

Undsicovered Country is also a favorite. I heard they were going to do a Sulu series a while back, but that never panned out. Then I heard they might do a few made for TV movies about Sulu and his Excelsior crew, but that never panned out. I really wished we could have seen that crew in action together again.

[James]

Then I heard they might do a few made for TV movies about Sulu and his Excelsior crew, but that never panned out. I really wished we could have seen that crew in action together again.

Don't you find Takei just a little, well wooden. Bless his heart, I think Sulu is cool but I don't know if the character is strong enough to take an entire series on his back.....

[Calhoun07]

You may be right. The TV movies would have been better. It's just a bummer now we won't get either.

[James]

Didn't he get some audio adventures? Did you here those? I think I read one of the novels - or tried to at least!!

[Calhoun07]

I'm not much into audio books.

[DarkAngel]

Originally posted by SJJ


Don't you find Takei just a little, well wooden. Bless his heart, I think Sulu is cool but I don't know if the character is strong enough to take an entire series on his back.....

It's not just that. Takei seems to have a heck of an ego. All he really seems to be interested in is being back in the spotlight. He's said he feels that an Excelsior series would be great for Star Trek, and yet he criticizes "Enterprise" because it takes place in the past, saying that Roddenberry's vision was about the future and new technologies. How can he make such a criticism when an Excelsior series would also take place in an earlier time period? And despite his dislike of the Enterprise concept, he seems to be trying to take credit for it. He says the campaign for the Excelsior series is what prompted Paramount to go with the prequel concept.

Given all the nonsense he's been talking the last couple months, I'm starting to wonder whether all the crap he's said about Shatner in the past is actually true.