Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of “what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek,” the suggestions are pretty predictable - your “best” episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak.
I like to take a different approach, trying to find episodes that I feel are most representative of the series - the “average” Star Trek episode. If you show someone the “best,” there’s nowhere to go but down, and it can set someone up for disappointment.
In the case of Star Trek, I actually find this pretty difficult, and I don’t think I’ve come up with any that I feel are really good answers, so I’m taking it to the crowd: what are the most representative episodes of Star Trek.
To me, these are the boxes that probably need to be ticked:
- Enjoyable (obviously).
- A conventional structure that doesn’t deviate from the norm too much - this is a flexible concept, but I think it excludes things like “Darmok,” or “Tapestry,” or “In the Pale Moonlight,” which are not really conventional.
- Any series is fair game.
What do you think? What are some “normal” Star Trek episodes that would serve as good representation of what the franchise usually is?
This is a great question. I like to recommend Data’s Day for newbies because he sort of goes around and introduces every character, but it’s a pretty unconventional episode.
I think I would go with “Doomsday Machine”!
That said, I also think Darmok would be a good fit too, the concept itself is unique in that as far as I know it’s the first it was used in science fiction, but the manner in which the concept is presented “Enterprise crew encounters a problem that can’t be solved with guns or technology” is pretty darn representative.
“Darmok” is so far the only Trek episode I’ve shown my spouse, because she wanted to know what the deal was with a t-shirt I had with that episode’s famous line on it. It did the job, she seemed to get into it despite being only vaguely familiar with the show.
Yeah, I called “Darmok” unconventional because of the two-actor stage play aspect of it, but it’s a borderline case. I’ll allow it.
Good point! I forgot that it was mostly the two of them on the planet. It is also somewhat unusual in that there is no distinct B-plot. The events that take place in orbit are directly related.