The Twenty Greatest Episodes of Star Trek — Part III!
My list of the Twenty Greatest Episodes of Star Trek continues! Click here for numbers 20-16, and here for numbers 15-11.
10. All Good Things (ST:TNG season 7, episode 25) — The two-hour series finale of Next Gen is not just a phenomenal finale but also one of the greatest episodes of the series. Picard finds himself moving back and forth through time, bouncing between the present day, a time just before he took command of the Enterprise D (in the series premiere, Encounter at Farpoint), and 25 years in the future. It’s fascinating to take a look back at the show’s early days (the mimicry of the costumes from that first season is particularly fun, as is the reappearance of deceased security officer Tasha Yar), but it’s the peek at the future of the Next Gen crew that, I think, really captured the fans’ imaginations. A wonderful reappearance by Q further strengthens the “full circle” connections to the show’s premiere. The episode boasts some terrific visual effects and a wonderful sci-fi paradox mystery makes the whole enterprise (sorry, couldn’t resist) truly compelling. Finally, there is the magnificent last scene, which ends the show and the series on a perfect note. The sky’s the limit, indeed.
9. Sarek (ST:TNG season 3, episode 23) — In its early years, the Next Gen writers strove to avoid any mention of characters or storylines from the Original Series in an effort to make sure this new show could stand on its own. But fans were delighted when, in this third season episode, Mark Leonard reprised his role as Spock’s father Sarek. That guest appearance alone would make the episode a winner, but it’s shot into the stratosphere by a terrific storyline about Sarek being affected by an Alzheimer’s-like disease that begins to weaken his mental controls, and by the absolutely amazing performances by Mark Leonard and Patrick Stewart. Stewart’s monologue (after Picard has mind-melded with Sarek and is being affected by the ragingly intense emotions that the elderly Vulcan has kept bottled up for almost two centuries) as the camera slowly circles around his face and Picard is pummeled by a roller-coaster of rage and grief is absolutely magnificent. My favorite moment: Picard/Sarek’s one subdued, lonely cry for his estranged son: “Spock.”
8. The City on the Edge of Forever (Star Trek season 1, episode 29) — One of the most well-known episodes of Star Trek, and for good reason. Harlan Ellison wrote the script for this, one of the most powerful and moving episodes of the original (or really ANY) Trek series, one that is also filled with a lot of terrific, unique sci-fi ideas. The Enterprise discovers the existence of the mysterious Guardian of Forever. When a crazed McCoy (driven mad by an accidental drug overdose) leaps through the time portal and changes history, it is up to Kirk and Spock to follow him back and set things right. This has become a much over-used sci-fi TV storyline these days, but not so in 1967. The episode is also raised above and beyond all of the time-travel imitators that have followed by the moral dilemma at its core: Spock discovers that, in order to set history back on track, Kirk must let the woman with whom he has fallen in love, Edith Keeler (guest star Joan Collins), die. The morose, somber ending is a heart-stopper. “He knows, doctor. He knows.”
7. Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (ST:DS9 season 7, episode 16). Julian Bashir attends a medical conference on Romulus (tentatively allied with the Federation against the Dominion), and finds himself embroiled in a web of political intrigue and treachery. The episode has a wonderfully mind-bending plot, as the viewer races with Julian to figure out just what the heck is going on, and who can really be trusted. Like all the best Trek episodes, it also poses a fascinating moral quandry. The latin quote means “in time of war, laws fall silent,” and Bashir must discover how far he is willing to go during a time of desperate struggle. Ron Moore’s clever script is filled to the brim with lots of little references to past DS9 episodes as well as episodes of the other Trek series and movies (Bashir travels to Romulus on an Intrepid class starship like Voyager, and many scenes take place on the Voyager sets; in several scenes the characters wear the new dress uniforms introduced in Star Trek: Insurrection; the Romulans ask Bashir about the deadly Quickening disease, which Bashir and O’Brien encountered in the 4th season of DS9; etc. etc.). I loved the way the writers in the later DS9 seasons weren’t afraid to slide in those references (which all of the other Trek series seemed to avoid) — it really made the Trek universe feel like a cohesive whole.
6. Call to Arms (ST:DS9 season 5, episode 26) — The season 5 finale is another stand-out DS9 episode. The show is filled with great little character moments for so many members of DS9‘s enormous supporting cast (Rom and Leeta’s wedding; Garak and Ziyal’s burgeoning relationship, etc.) as well as terrific, energetic visual effects action sequences as the Dominion/Cardassian fleet attacks and captures DS9. This episode marked a major turning point for the show, as war finally breaks out between the Federation and the Dominion, and our characters are forced to flee the station. Extra points go to the terrific final shot in which the Defiant meets up with the enormous assembled Starfleet, heading back to DS9 to kick some ass. In all of the Trek shows and movies that had come before, we’d never really seen a fleet of Federation starships assembled (the writers always found some excuse not to go that route — even in this episode, we hear of Starfleet’s attack on a Dominion shipyard but don’t see it), so this moment was a jaw-dropping one that made fans desperate for season 6 to arrive.
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