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What are your top ten favorite episodes of star trek? Can be TOS, animated series, TNG, VOY, DS9, Disco, lower decks, Prodigy, just any trek thing that's television and not a movie. Explain why or leave us all to ponder your motives. Lay it on me!

Edit: Replace City on the Edge of Tomorrow with the 2-part Hirojen occupation of Voyager.

First Contact
Chain of Command
Night Terrors
Starship Mine
Blink of an Eye
Counterpoint
Future's End
Field of Fire
Who Mourns for Morn
City on the Edge of Tomorrow

No particular order just thinking of the shows and episodes that come to mind.

Balance of Terror (Never got into TOS as it was well before my time, and never saw any repeats at a formative age. This one though I happened to catch when the BBC decided to re-air the first series in the late 90s and this one especially really wowed me)
Yesterday's Enterprise
Measure of a Man
Sarek
Best of Both Worlds p1 (Four eps of TNG being excellent)
Duet
Trials and Tribble-ations
In the Pale Moonlight (Three eps of DS9 also being excellent)
Relativity (Yes there's eps of Voyager that are probably better, but it's so dang goofy, enthusiastic, and devil may care that I legit love it)
Wej Duj (Lower Decks finest episode and more than worthy of being in this list. I cut the Wire to include it, and Garak is my favourite Trek character. LD has really impressed me so far after such a rubbish first couple of eps, and if I was doing a top 15 then No Small Parts the s1 finale would absolutely also be in here)

There are too many great ones, but these come to my mind:

The Inner Light
In the Pale Moonlight
Best of Both Worlds, I & II
Chain of Command, I & II
The Most Toys
Sacred Ground
Darmok

If I had the time and patience and such, I would challenge myself to do a Top 10 from every series.

I'd have to watch Discovery and Prodigy to get something like that, but I would dare if so needed.

Balance of Terror
Duet
Measure of a Man
Ensigns of Command
Deja Q
Descent
Descent part 2
Relics
That Which Survives
Improbable Cause

Looking at my own list I think I like parts where Data is awesome. That Which Survives to me was meh brought up to great for one thing they did. Scotty informs Spock the Enterprise feels wrong. Spock has him continue his work. But still checks, he did not dismiss Scotty for being a 'silly human'. The expert says something is wrong then there is something wrong. I thought that was and is something often over looked in show writing.

Frustration wrote: ↑Tue Mar 22, 2022 6:32 pm There are too many great ones, but these come to my mind:

The Inner Light
In the Pale Moonlight
Best of Both Worlds, I & II
Chain of Command, I & II
The Most Toys
Sacred Ground
Darmok

Like hell I'm giving two-parters two votes. They either both get in or I'm picking my favorite of the two.

Yeah. Also, it would be better to give Top Ten lists for each of the series - there's just too many quality episodes to choose.

#STSophiesChoice

What's your top ten TNG then?

I've already listed many of them. To be fair, I'd have to review the entire series to be sure not to overlook a gem.

Have I mentioned "The Nth Degree" yet? I love Barclay - making a complex character who wasn't utterly perfect and whose imperfections were inherently a part of his strengths was a big improvement for the show, which had a lingering musk of the "Utopia is Boring" trope from Roddenberry's initial demands.

Then there're the "guilty pleasures", where the episodes are highly enjoyable even though they lack profundity or a thought-provoking deep concept.

And the occasional good deconstruction. "In the Pale Moonlight" is perhaps my favorite episode of DS9, and one of my favorites for ST generally, but you'd have to be deeply familiar with the shows' setting to understand why. I wouldn't show it to someone unfamiliar with ST to convince them how good it is.