star trek worst fight

How the Star Trek Punch Became the Worst Fight Move on TV

Captain Kirk fought the alien Gorn in the Star Trek episode "Arena" in 1967. It was a lame fight, often called the lamest fight ever. And the lamest move was Kirk's two-handed punch in the Gorn's back that barely registered. But then the move was used again and again in other episodes. It was still lame, but it became part of the Star Trek landscape.  

Maybe the move looked cool in 1967, when the episode first aired. After all, the airwaves at the time were filled with homelier fare like The Andy Griffith Show and Bonanza. The punch continued to make appearances in later Star Trek entries: It's featured in the 1980s TV series The Next Generation, and throughout the 90s in Deep Space Nine. Its resilience has led to a ton of speculation among fans: Is the punch somehow an official element of Star Trek's mythos? It doesn't look threatening at all, so there must be some other reason that explains why it's so prominent.

I can assure you it did not look cool even in 1967. It made my dad laugh. We were just glad to have a space show on TV. The double-handed punch didn't originate with Star Trek , but it survives because of Star Trek . Jordan Pearson talked to a Star Trek stunt coordinator about the history the move and why the show continued to use it so much that we think of it as an iconic part of Star Trek . -via Metafilter

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Read This: The history of the weird-ass Star Trek double-fist punch

Say what you will about the new Star Trek: Discovery , but it does seem to at least have some competent production values going for it. Star Trek fans have, over the years, come to appreciate the reused sets, corny costumes, and most of all the hammy action scenes of people rocking back and forth amid intergalactic warfare. In particular, there’s something distinctive about the shows’ fight choreography, a sort of plodding, overly premeditated dance between a jumpsuit and a big rubber monster that’s not far off from a Godzilla movie. Take, for example, this notorious video of The Worst Fight Scene Ever:

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There are a lot of noteworthy moments here—like the big stick, the hug, the leg grab, or what can only be described as the rock-off—but the signature Star Trek fight-scene move comes at 0:20, when Kirk clasps both hands and levels this fell beast with a devastating double punch. As a new Motherboard article details, this singular blow has gone on to be delivered numerous times throughout Star Trek history, despite the fact that it’s ridiculous; it is a source of endless fascination among fans online . Here’s Spock delivering a cavalcade of double punches to a woman:

Picard unleashing one on a big ol’ guy on The Next Generation :

And Deep Space Nine ’s Major Kira using it against Cardassian after Cardassian:

Motherboard ’s Jordan Pearson tracked down long-time stunt coordinator Dennis Madalone, who didn’t innovate the double-fist punch but did use it regularly across some 400 episodes of the various series, from The Next Generation through Voyager . Madalone says it was really a matter of taste, a preference for the way the double punch seemed at once classic and futuristic. He didn’t have a bunch of oversight and was left to sort of do as he wished. As a weird aside, Madalone is also the guy who made this video:

So his taste is a little suspect.

You can read the rest of the article here , and see if the double punch made it into the new Star Trek: Discovery when it premieres this Sunday.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson on Star Trek ’s “Worst Fight Scene Ever”

On Monday, CBS announced that it is working on a new Star Trek series for release in January 2017. It’s been 10 years since Enterprise , the most recent Star Trek television show, went off the air. But the success of J.J. Abrams’ two films (with one still on the way) has sustained and revitalized the brand. As the canon evolves, it’s more important than ever to revisit the original Star Trek and consider its goals. Luckily that’s something Neil deGrasse Tyson likes to do!

Tyson has often said that he prefers classic Star Trek to The Next Generation because he feels that James Kirk is a better captain than Jean-Luc Picard. Kirk is willing to get in fights, take risks, and bluff his way through sticky situations, where Picard typically favors a more measured and dispassionate approach. So Slate decided to bring a classic Trek scene—Kirk’s fight with the captain of an alien Gorn ship—to Tyson’s office at the Hayden Planetarium.

“ Star Trek would explore the expression of human traits [that] maybe we even take for granted but aliens might find intriguing,” he explained. “The morality tale that so many Star Trek episodes represented I think was its greatest strength.”

The scene in question has the distinction, though, of being known around the Internet as the “worst fight scene ever,” because of its utterly dopey choreography. ( The Gorn costume severely limited stuntman Bobby Clark’s range of motion.) But Tyson has a different criticism of the scene. “My great disappointment with the Gorn fight is I thought even by then they could have been more creative in what they imagined an alien to look like,” he told Slate .

Hopefully there will be more information about the shape and direction of the upcoming CBS Star Trek soon. But Tyson knows what he likes. “To me your captain is somebody who you know will put himself at risk for you,” he said. “That’s the person who you follow.”

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‘Star Trek’: Watch the Worst Fight Scene Ever

And when I say "Star Trek," I mean the original. Most aspects of TV production have improved since 1967, of course, so in a way it's unfair to compare this fight scene, from the "Star Trek" episode "Arena," to the kinds of bouts we're accustomed to seeing today. But honestly, NO ONE involved in this scene was trying — not the alien costume designer, not the editor, not the cinematographer, not the location scout, not the actors, and CERTAINLY not the combat choreographer. Watch and laugh. Happy weekend!

[ Boing Boing ]

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Star trek: the 10 all time best (and 10 worst) episodes, officially ranked.

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Star Trek Reveals Why Spock Really Left The Enterprise (To Study Kholinar)

Star trek confirms how beckett mariner's story needs to end, 10 star trek episodes if you hate happy endings.

Star Trek , throughout many moments of its many seasons, has been a prime example of superior science-fiction television, and has had a tremendous effect on not only fans of the genre, but curious outsiders who found themselves drawn into the well-developed world of our space-faring future, complete with wonderfully multi-dimensional characters, harrowing plots, and impactful commentary on any number of current day issues through the gaze of fiction.

The warp-powered franchise may have had many incarnations, timelines, and movies, but all have at least tried to remain reasonably faithful to the intention of series’ creator, Gene Roddenberry.

Unfortunately, for every tremendous success in that particular realm, there are often some Picard-styled face-palming failures.  Trek has given us some of the greatest science-fiction episodes of all time, along with some of the worst, and we’ve dug through both sides of the spectrum and compiled a list that’ll set the record straight on the many ups and downs the franchise has produced.

In our list, we’re hoping to provide a definitive guide on what fans both new and old should dive right into, or what they should avoid at all costs. While reading through the list, try to keep in mind just how dramatic the hills and valleys of quality and garbage are. It’s simply staggering that a season can have an award-winning episode that is beyond brilliant, only for another to be equally awful.

With that said, here are the  10 All Time Best (And 10 Worst) Star Trek  Episodes, Officially Ranked .

Best: The Trouble With Tribbles (TOS)

Sometimes being the “best” doesn’t just pertain to pure quality. For some things, being the best not only means being of high quality, but also being incredibly iconic and well-known, and “The Trouble with Tribbles” is all of the above. While there are certainly much better episodes of the original series, you’d be hard pressed to find one as widely beloved as this one.

In short, Kirk and crew need to deal with an infestation aboard the Enterprise, the Klingons, and even a scruffy bar brawl with Scotty after someone spoke ill of his beloved ship. Seriously, how could we say we’re ranking the best of the best and not include the episode featuring those incredibly cuddly (yet extremely dangerous) Tribbles and their impressive reproduction capabilities?

Worst: These Are The Voyages... (ENT)

“These Are The Voyages…” is an oddity. If we look at squarely as its own thing, there are far worse episodes in every series of the show, but when coupled with its intended context, it’s a perfect example of frustration and surrender.

Airing as the series finale for the Star Trek: Enterprise , the first mainline entry to cause a major schism in fan reception (with Discovery to follow), the show features a major crossover with The Next Generation crew, as they observe Archer and his comrades through an historical record in the Holodeck. Conceptually, this is alright, but you know your show is tanking when you need to bring back beloved cast members to help go out with dignity.

Best: Year Of Hell (VOY)

Voyager had an interesting concept, but it didn’t always take advantage its potential, nor the kind are storytelling that could have accompanied it, making the series sometimes feel like it was just “more of the same.” That said, every now and then we’d get an episode (or episodes, in this case) that really showed what the cast, crew and writers were capable of, and “Year of Hell” is that.

With stakes set incredibly high by the villainous Annorax after he erases a civilization from time itself, the drama only heightens, with a multi-day arc that left viewers on the edge of their seat, particularly following Janeway’s order to abandon ship. This episode proved what Voyager was capable of, and it’s a shame we rarely caught another glimpse.

Worst: The Fight (VOY)

While Voyager did have multiple stand-out moments and episodes (like the aforementioned “Year of Hell”) it also fell victim to less-than-stellar plots, by-the-numbers episodes, and sometimes genuine stinkers that embarrassed the entire franchise. “The Fight” is one of those.

In general, the episode is a bizarre, unfocused mess that features an unnecessary amount of mystique and pretentious meanings to pointless character moments from Chakotay, with an out-of-the-blue narrative conceit, who is plagued with surreal visions after a boxing match gone wrong on the Holodeck. In these visions, Chakotay finds himself in a boxing match, and he attempts to contact otherworldly beings… and its execution is more or less utterly inane. Despite its endlessly nonsensical veneer, the episode commits the worst crime of all by being extremely boring.

Best: Trials And Tribble-ations (DS9)

We feel like we’re kind of cheating with this one, considering how we already mentioned “The Trouble with Tribbles” as one of the franchise’s best episodes, but “Trials and Tribble-ations” is so beloved by fans that it’s also worthy of inclusion on this list.

In short, Sisko and other crewmembers from the Defiant find themselves on a mission back in time during the events of “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Our beloved Deep Space Nine cast members need to blend in to stop a certain time-travelling villain from altering the events of history, and the effect is so absolutely jaw-dropping -- you’d swear that Kirk and Sisko really were in the same room conversing with one another. It’s true that the episode was designed as simple fan service to celebrate the series’ 30th anniversary, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly awesome.

Worst: The Omega Glory (TOS)

Star Trek was and is always at its best when it tackles current socio-political issues through its science fiction storytelling… but it’s also occasionally been at its worst, and “The Omega Glory” is one of those times.

In an assault on the Cold War, which strongly gripped both America and Russia at the time, “The Omega Glory” features two allegorical races locked in a similar conflict, the Yangs and the Comms. Unfortunately, this perfect set-up fails to live up to its goals, and “The Omega Glory” descends into a clear-cut lesson on who is right and who is wrong, rather than leaving it as a stark example of the absurdity of ideological conflict. It’s also very boring.

Best: Measure Of A Man (TNG)

Data remains one of Star Trek’s most iconic and beloved characters. Data, as an android, is one of the most integral crew members of the Enterprise, with his fast knowledge and superior strength, but what makes him so adored within the franchise is his quest to better himself and become more than just the creation of a scientist.

In "Measure of a Man", one of the finest (and still incredibly relevant) episodes of The Next Generation , a debate rages regarding Data’s individual rights as a sentient being. It tackles issues such as what it means to be alive, the rights of an individual, the nature of creating artificial life, and much more head on. While the episode certainly isn’t heavily veiled with its allusions to real-world debates involving genuine human beings and their rights, it still left a powerful and emotional impact.

Worst: A Night In Sickbay (ENT)

As a prequel, Enterprise does a good enough job showing how humanity overcame the issues that lead to World War III and how they’d eventually grow to the society in the original series and The Next Generation , but it also had many ill-conceived elements, concepts and episodes that would mar an already average show. “A Night in Sickbay” is a combination of all the above.

After Porthos, Archer’s dog, gets sick, the crew of the Enterprise return to the planet he contracted the disease in order to acquire the cure, but they’re refused since Porthos peed on a tree that was sacred to the race. Yes, there’s a Star Trek episode where the primary issue is that a dog peed on a tree.

Best: In The Pale Moonlight (DS9)

Deep Space Nine was a major departure from the tried-and-true Star Trek formula. With the show’s dark, even bleak, tone, it wasn’t afraid to explore the underbelly of the “utopian” Federation, or the horrors and devastation of war.

In “In the Pale Moonlight”, Sisko, desperate to bring the Romulans into the war against the all-powerful Dominion, attempts to trick the stubborn race using forged evidence, but it backfires. Going with an unplanned back-up solution, Garak assassinates the visiting Romulans and makes it appear that the Dominion was responsible, successfully drawing a new ally into the fold. After the assassinations, espionage and subterfuge, you’d think that Sisko would feel guilt or remorse. However, he doesn’t. He did what had to be done.

Worst: The Way To Eden (TOS)

Despite the sci-fi nature of the original Star Trek , the show still can’t avoid the fact that it was made in the '60s. From the psychedelic backdrops on the Enterprise to grappling with social issues of the time, Star Trek is definitely a product of its era… and that’s most apparent with “The Way to Eden”.

“The Way to Eden” makes it blatantly known that it’s the psychedelic '60s, since the main plot involves none other than hippies -- or, in this case specifically, space Hippies. The episode is pre-occupied with disparaging the counterculture of the time, and it is as much of a pain to watch today as it was to watch back then. Not sold on space hippies yet? What if we told you that they take over the enterprise with groovy music? Yes, that’s what we thought.

Best: The Best Of Both Worlds (TNG)

“The Best of Both Worlds” doesn’t tackle any important social or political issues, but those elements aren’t what make an episode one of the greatest in the entire franchise, or even just great. No, sometimes Star Trek  telling a story that deals with the characters you know and love is the cream of the crop, and “The Best of Both Worlds” delivers this in spades.

After many episodes’ worth of teasing, the Enterprise finally comes face-to-face for their ultimate nemesis, the Borg. In a jaw-dropping shocker of a season finale cliffhanger, Captain Picard is captured by the enemy and transformed into a member of their collective. The next season opens up with the explosive conclusion to this arc, and its effects would be felt throughout the rest of the series, and even TNG’s films.

Worst: The Savage Curtain (TOS)

Ah, “The Savage Curtain”. Let’s put it like this: Abraham Lincoln is in it, and he teams up with Spock, Captain Kirk, and Surak as they face off against historical evildoers such as Genghis Khan, all in the name of a sentient pile of rocks.

Does that sound like riveting science fiction content to you? Or does it sound more like a modern satire of the most poorly executed and hammy sci-fi of the '50s and '60s? We can’t really imagine why this episode was ever conceived as anything more than a joke, why pen was ever put to paper regarding it, or why it was eventually filmed and aired on television. It’s a bafflingly dumb and needlessly absurd episode that only makes the uninitiated think that Star Trek is nothing more than pure schlock.

Best: Far Beyond The Stars (DS9)

We’ve already stated that Star Trek is often at its best when it tackles complex issues, but “Far Beyond the Stars” takes this concept to an entirely new level, easily cementing it as one of the most meaningful, impactful and compelling episodes of not only Deep Space Nine , but the franchise as a whole.

Portraying the cast of Deep Space Nine as writers for a science fiction magazine in the '50s, it shows the struggles for equality faced by Benny Russell (played by Avery Brooks) as he attempts to get his story, featuring a certain space station and commander named Benjamin Sisko, published. Directed by Avery Brooks himself (and by far his favorite episode), “Far Beyond the Stars” is an emotional rollercoaster ride that leaves viewers with few answers to problems that continue to plague our own era.

Worst: Threshold (VOY)

Voyager’ s “The Fight” was a poorly conceived and even more poorly executed episode, layered in a healthy coating of pretentiousness with a thick and creamy center of absurdity. “Threshold” is on a similar plane of existence, but trades most of the pretentious ideals for extra helpings of weirdness and baffling, mind-bending bewilderment.

By the time this episode ends, you, as a viewer, will be so thoroughly and violently confused that you may decide to call it a day and head straight to bed. “Threshold” is that bad. It’s not even worth it for us to describe it to you, since it lacks any form of logic, but we’ll just say that apparently going past the warp-threshold turns you into a lizard.

Best: The City On The Edge Of Forever (TOS)

Star Trek is no stranger to time travel stories. In fact, the concept is one of their most used (or possibly overused) plot devices. While most of the episodes featuring temporal manipulation are great in their own right, very few can stand up to the original series’ excellent “The City on the Edge of Forever”.

Dealing with the catastrophic consequences of altering history innocuously through the so-called “Butterfly Effect,” viewers are treated to a mesmerizing and emotionally-crushing entry that displays the significance of sacrificing oneself for the greater good. Most interestingly, despite “The City on the Edge of Forever” being one of the most celebrated episodes of the entire series, Harlan Ellison, its writer, absolutely abhorred how they translated it to screen .

Worst: Shades Of Gray (TNG)

Everyone’s favorite kind of episode in any series are clip shows, right? Wait, what’s that? No one likes clip shows? Well, if no one likes clip shows, why would an episode of the beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation have one, and why would it be the season finale, no less? The answer is because the universe hates us, as that can be the only real justification for having a lazy and downright awful clip show be the bookend to an entire season.

Apparently caused by budget ways, “Shades of Gray” was hastily thrown together, and it shows. With an idiotic plot justification, and little worthwhile footage to use, “Shades of Gray” is an exercise in disappointment.

Best: The Visitor (DS9)

Sometimes, an episode of a television show is so good that it doesn’t require any previous knowledge of the series or characters to be appreciated. Episodes like these are of such high quality that they could almost pass as a stand alone short film.  Deep Space Nine’s “The Visitor” is one of those episodes. It’s not just good Star Trek , it’s outstanding science-fiction.

The episode presents an alternate reality where Sisko is sucked into another time and place, and life goes on for the main characters… except for Jake. Jake devotes his life to finding a way to rescue his father, tossing just about everything else to the side. Eventually, the two are able to briefly meet again, face to face, and it’s one of the most emotionally impactful and poignant scenes in all of Star Trek.

Worst: Spock's Brain (TOS)

Easily the worst episode of the original series, “Spock’s Brain” requires that viewers to turn off their own brain and attempt to make sense of a plot so overwhelmingly dumb, that you might feel physical pain while you attempt to power through the episode’s entire runtime.

According to William Shatner himself, this awful episode was crafted in retaliation after the network started to mistreat the series, but that doesn’t exactly excuse the garbage-tier plot, since fans are the ones who truly suffered. In the episode, Spock’s brain is stolen, and, somehow, this event doesn’t immediately end his life. Couple the preposterous storyline with generally awful writing and production value, and you’ve got a masterpiece of pure trash.

Best: All Good Things... (TNG)

A satisfying series finale is always the goal, but it doesn’t always happen. It’s even rarer for it to not only be fully satisfying, but the best episode in the entire run. Miraculously, The Next Generation’s “All Good Things…” accomplishes both of those feats.

Bringing back the deliciously omnipotent Q, mirroring the first episode, and putting the existence of all humanity at stake are just some of the elements that makes this masterpiece of an ending such a spectacular finale. Better yet, we get to see three distinct realities for the Enterprise and her crew, and the three must work together to prove the humanity’s worth and potential to Q in order to save their entire species. It’s a wonderful example of things coming full circle while also proving that, yes, all good things do come to an end.

Worst: Code Of Honor (TNG)

Coming off the single best episode of not just The Next Generation , but the franchise as a whole, it’s maddening to have to discuss the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and the fact that it’s also from The Next Generation makes it that much worse.

Here’s the thing: some episodes of certain seasons might actually be worse than “Code of Honor” technically speaking, but there’s something that sets this stinking turd apart from its cripplingly terrible peers and makes it far worse than the sum of its parts. See, “Code of Honor” isn’t just bad -- it’s blatantly offensive and unabashedly racist. While that’s an awful, disgusting way to be in general, it’s almost worse when it comes from Star Trek , a series which paved the way for social progress. “Code of Honor” is inexcusable.

Are there any other incredible (or awful)  Star Trek  episodes that we forgot to mention? Sound off in the comments!

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• Star Trek Series | 2151 - 2270
• Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series

Worst/Best Fight Scenes

• Thread starter EnsignTOS
• Start date Oct 28, 2014

Lieutenant Commander

• Oct 28, 2014

• Spock's Barber
• Oct 29, 2014

EnsignTOS said: We all know that the fight scene in "Arena" is the worst one of all. Maybe even the worst in television history. But feel free to discuss what you think here! Click to expand...

Well, I just went to Vasquez rocks last weekend to see the location of the show. It was filmed in a very small area in the car park. Arena is still a classic, tho.  

PCz911 said: Well, I just went to Vasquez rocks last weekend to see the location of the show. It was filmed in a very small area in the car park. Arena is still a classic, tho. Click to expand...

CorporalCaptain

EnsignTOS said: We all know that the fight scene in "Arena" is the worst one of all. Maybe even the worst in television history. Click to expand...

Creepy Critter said: EnsignTOS said: We all know that the fight scene in "Arena" is the worst one of all. Maybe even the worst in television history. Click to expand...

My picks: Worst = Lazarus versus Lazarus in the corridor between universes in "The Alternative Factor". Best = The barroom brawl in "The Trouble with Tribbles". Runners Up = Kirk versus Spock in "Amok Time" and the landing party versus Mirror Spock in "Mirror, Mirror". Best with energy weapons = Defeating Kras in "Friday's Child".  

Fleet Captain

No offense, but I prefer serious fight scenes, not comedic scenes like in "Tribbles." I think the best fight was Kirk vs. Mitchell in WNMHGB. Runners up: Kirk vs. Tracey in "Omega Glory," Spock vs. Kirk in "Amok Time," Decker vs. generic redshirt in TDM, and the sickbay brawl "Mirror, Mirror." What is it with these starship captains liking to fight? My guilty pleasure: Kirk "killing" Hengist in "Wolf In the Fold," just based on this: [FONT=Arial]KIRK: Now then, Mister Hengist (But Hengist tries to make a break for it, even landing a very good kick on Kirk, who repays him with an even better right cross. Hengist falls to the floor.) MCCOY: He's dead, Jim. KIRK: But that's impossible! (The lights dim eerily.) VOICE [OC]: Redjac! Redjac! Redjac! Redjac! Redjac! (maniacal laughter) [/FONT] [FONT=Arial][/FONT] [FONT=Arial](Thanks to http://www.chakoteya.net/startrek/index.htm for the transcripts!)[/FONT]  

CrazyMatt said: No offense, but I prefer serious fight scenes, not comedic scenes like in "Tribbles." Click to expand...

KRAS: The next man who raises a weapon destroys all of you. You and your primitive knives and your weapons, I'll teach you what killing really means. Click to expand...

F. King Daniel

Fleet admiral.

The Gorn fight is both the best and the worst fight scene in Trek.  

Creepy Critter said: CrazyMatt said: No offense, but I prefer serious fight scenes, not comedic scenes like in "Tribbles." Click to expand...

^ The Gorn scene was brilliantly lampooned in Galaxy Quest.  

Vice Admiral

I think the best fight was Kirk vs. Mitchell in WNMHGB. Click to expand...

Runners up: Kirk vs. Tracey in "Omega Glory," Click to expand...

Spock vs. Kirk in "Amok Time," Decker vs. generic redshirt in TDM, and the sickbay brawl "Mirror, Mirror." Click to expand...

• Oct 30, 2014

Creepy Critter said: ^ The Gorn scene was brilliantly lampooned in Galaxy Quest. Click to expand...

PCz911 said: Creepy Critter said: ^ The Gorn scene was brilliantly lampooned in Galaxy Quest. Click to expand...

• Nov 1, 2014

I actually enjoyed the Spock / Kirk fight in "This Side of Paradise", mostly the verbal insults thrown at Spock by Kirk and Spock's reaction.  

2takesfrakes

Rear admiral.

THE BEST FIGHT SCENE: "Kirok" vs. Salish, because, as far as I'm aware, it was the only time when Kirk fought someone who was in the right. Salish had been too civil for entirely too long, considering all that he'd lost, being usurped by The Good Captain. And when Salish cut Kirok's hand and took such pleasure in knowing he could be hurt, who could blame him? WORST FIGHT SCENE: Kirk vs. Khan - oh, that a Navy SEAL would've had the foresight to beat Khan the Tyrant with a piece of pipe, then oh, how peaceful the year 1996 would've proven to be ... for everybody. But you go, Kirk ... do that pipe-pounding thing you do and finally rid us of Khan ... forever!  

2takesfrakes said: THE BEST FIGHT SCENE: "Kirok" vs. Salish, because, as far as I'm aware, it was the only time when Kirk fought someone who was in the right. Salish had been too civil for entirely too long, considering all that he'd lost, being usurped by The Good Captain. And when Salish cut Kirok's hand and took such pleasure in knowing he could be hurt, who could blame him? Click to expand...

Creepy Critter said: When I want a dose of serious, TOS dematerializations are the place to go. It's why I went with the scene in "Friday's Child" for energy weapons. Despite some clichés, such as the way that Capellan falls off the ledge after getting shot by an arrow, that segment really works for me. One of my favorite lines from TOS is: KRAS: The next man who raises a weapon destroys all of you. You and your primitive knives and your weapons, I'll teach you what killing really means. Click to expand...

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The Best/Worst Star Trek Episodes Of All Time: The Original Series

Published in The Best/Worst Star Trek Episodes Of All Time: The Original Series | 630 words

Only the eldest remember what it was like to wait for the latest Trek episode to come out each week, but many remember watching rerun after summer rerun, endless days of Star Trek mingled with Wild West West or Wonder Woman or the A-Team.

Trekkie generations after mine have their own favorites, but I fell away from the Trek following around the same time as Voyager, due to TV-less circumstances that had little to do with Star Trek. So for me, the original Star Trek is the shiznit – I’d estimate I watched each episode at least a half dozen times and probably, embarrassing, maybe a little more, as a kid.

When I raised the question among the staff, we found many had definite opinions, and we all had a Star Trek that was particularly ours. For me, it’s definitely the first series, although I will confess to watching a lot of The Next Generation as well.

Best Episodes of All Time – Star Trek

• The Trouble With Tribbles will always be high on my list. -Cat Rambo
• Amok Time — Kirk and Spock fight! -Rae Bryant
• One of my favorites that wasn’t really a ST episode – “GalaxyQuest”, which skewers and celebrates ST, even down to the fans of Trekkies and Trekkies 2. Cat Rambo

Worst Episodes of All Time – Star Trek

• “The Way to Eden”. The “space hippies” episode. Spock is cool, but Kirk is an uptight authoritarian (or a “Herbert” in space hippy slang). The ending is so heavy-handed that it cracks me up every time. -Mark Bukovec The one with the gorn, when Kirk builds a crude spear thrower out of a bush and some rocks. The gorn is way too reminiscent of a bad Godzilla movie, and the science is…well, illogical. -Cat Rambo Spock’s Brain and The Naked Time – Samantha Chapman

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The 15 Best Worst Episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series

These are the Star Trek episodes that you know are terrible, but can’t stop watching.

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No TV show is perfect. The great Rod Serling once said about The Twilight Zone (and I’m paraphrasing) that one-third of the shows were damn good, one-third were passable and the last third were dogs. With just 79 episodes in its total run, Star Trek: The Original Series may have beaten that breakdown slightly, thanks to an excellent first season and a lot of strong second season shows. But there were some clunkers along the way, leading up to the infamous third season and its large assortment of pretty crappy episodes.

Even those bombs have their charms though, and any Trekker will tell you that we watch even the roughest Season 3 outings with a mixture of affection and stunned fascination. Some of Star Trek ’s silliest stories still had a germ of an interesting idea at their core, or a decent moment here and there or a terrific performance from somebody. So it is with a certain degree of fondness that we present the 15 best worst episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series – we’ll still watch no matter how painful it gets.

15. “Requiem for Methuselah”

Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to a planet belonging to the mysterious Flint (James Daly), a man with seemingly no past, who lives there with his beautiful young ward Rayna (Louise Sorel), of whom there is also no record. Kirk and Rayna fall in love, but she turns out to be a robot built by the immortal, shapeshifting Flint as a companion for himself. The central idea that famous figures of Earth history – Brahms, Da Vinci, others – are actually all one man is a compelling one, but the episode is ludicrous: Kirk falls so deeply in love with Rayna over the course of just four hours that he is scarred by the experience. What? This is a guy who screws alien women by the truckload – you’re telling me he’ll get emotionally wounded by an afternoon with an android?

14. “The Mark of Gideon”

Kirk falls in love – again – with a beautiful woman named Odona (Sharon Acker) whom he meets aboard a seemingly deserted Enterprise after attempting to beam down to the planet Gideon. But Spock and everyone else are still on board the real Enterprise , so where has Kirk landed? And why is Odona there? The answer will shock absolutely no one, and the whole plot hinges on the leaders of Gideon building a full-sized replica of the interior of the Enterprise just to fool Kirk. They need a specific virus to save their planet that Kirk carries in his blood, so why not just ask him for a blood sample? A laughable premise and uninspired direction combine to make sure that this weak episode leaves no mark of any kind.

13. “Assignment: Earth”

This is the infamous second season closer that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry tried to use as a backdoor pilot for a new series. The show focused on Gary Seven (Robert Lansing), a human raised by aliens and equipped by them to travel in time and space solving problems, who bumps up against the crew of the Enterprise as they just happen to be on a routine time travel mission back to the late ‘60s. It’s clear from the start that this is an awkward fit into the Trek canon, as the stars of the show are offscreen for long stretches of time, plus the story itself and Lansing’s character are simply not that interesting. “Assignment: Earth” was not picked up as a series, and it’s easy to see why.

12. “The Gamesters of Triskelion”

A lot of fans like this one, but it doesn’t hold up: plenty of elements are lifted from episodes like “Arena” and “The Cage” in this tale of an alien planet where superior intelligences known as the Providers capture other beings and use them as gladiators in games that the Providers wager on. The Providers themselves are three disembodied brains in a glass case, which lessens their impact when we finally see them (if we just don’t laugh). The slaves (or “Thralls”) are a hokey bunch, led by sexploitation actress Angelique Pettyjohn in a flimsy silver bathing suit. One of the few positives is that Uhura and Chekov, captured with Kirk, get some generous screen time and something different to do for a change.

11. “Whom Gods Destroy”

Kirk and Spock beam down to the insane asylum on the planet Elba II with a shipment of medicine, only to discover that the lunatics are literally running the place under the leadership of Garth of Izar (Steve Inhat), a former starship captain who was given the power to shapeshift by a race of aliens after he badly injured on a rescue mission. The now-mad Garth wants to use the Enterprise in his quest to make himself “Master of the Universe.” A highly formulaic episode in which Kirk and Spock are once again trapped on a planet while the Enterprise is endangered above, it does feature Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig as a sexy Orion inmate but is hampered by the stock plot and endless scenery chewing from the late Inhat.

10. “Spectre of the Gun”

There seems to be a following for this famous episode, in which Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Sulu face death at the hands of the Earp brothers in a recreation of the gunfight at the OK Corral. But if the Melkotians, who are punishing the Enterprise officers for the ship’s intrusion into Melkot space, are so powerful, why don’t they just smite our heroes where they stand? There is absolutely no need to fabricate the whole Old West scenario. Plus I can’t decide whether the half-finished nature of the town of Tombstone in this scenario is supposed to be surreal or they just ran out of money and said to hell with it. Spock mind-melding with everyone at the end is a nice touch, but this one fires mostly blanks.

9. “The Apple”

There are many memorable elements in “The Apple,” both for good and bad reasons, and it’s certainly crammed with all kinds of crazy stuff: the giant rock head of Vaal with its glowing eyes and mouth, the deadly jungle planet with its myriad traps and wild weather, and the race of childlike beings who exist to serve Vaal, have never seen humans before, but somehow speak English (a flaw inherent in a lot of episodes, to be fair). Yet the theme of a stagnant, controlled society had been done in a better way with “The Return of the Archons” in Season 1, and despite a lot of superficial excitement (four redshirts meet their doom in this one), “The Apple” goes bad pretty quickly.

8. “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”

Yet another computer controls yet another unquestioning civilization, only this time it’s the inhabitants of a generation ship who are about to be pulverized by an asteroid before reaching their destination. It’s up to the Enterprise to divert them, but first Dr. McCoy — who discovers he’s dying of an incurable disease — falls in love with the ship’s queen and wants to live out the rest of his life with her after knowing her for about an hour. A rare affliction, a doomed romance — Star Trek veered sharply into soap opera here, although some brief moments between DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner are moving. McCoy’s love affair, however, heats up far too quickly for it to have real resonance, and the rest of the script feels threadbare and — dare I say it — hollow.

7. “Turnabout Intruder”

The final original series episode to be filmed and aired is either a) an unintentionally campy and downright sexist disaster or b) a subtly ahead-of-its-time commentary on gender and the interchangeable nature of traditional sexual identities. Eh, who am I kidding…it’s the first answer all the way. A vengeful former lover of Kirk’s, the unstable Janice Lester (Sandra Smith), uses alien technology to place her consciousness in Kirk’s body and vice versa, enabling her to take over the Enterprise and enabling Shatner to go off the deep end with one of his most incredibly histrionic performances ever. Sadly, the episode seems to say that women are too emotionally high-strung to handle command, a hideous notion even for 1969 and a terrible way for the original show to go out.

6. “The Alternative Factor”

Massive rewrites (to tone down an interracial romance for a nervous NBC) and a last-minute change in the main guest star resulted in this rare Season 1 misfire, which is a shame because the central idea is so intriguing. Robert Brown (replacing John Drew Barrymore the night before shooting started) plays Lazarus, a time traveler driven insane by the existence of a duplicate Lazarus in a parallel universe made of anti-matter. If the two ever meet in either universe, they will cancel out not just each other but all of reality. The repetitive script throws a lot of wonky science at the viewer, a number of scenes feel pointless and Brown never quite finds the right tone for his two performances, making this mess of an episode implode.

5. “The Omega Glory”

Yangs and Kohms (Yankees and Communists, get it?) fight it out in this thinly disguised Cold War allegory, which finds our three heroes and a redshirt held prisoner by a rogue starship captain (Morgan Woodward) who thinks he’s found the secret of immortality on a planet scarred by ongoing war between two tribal factions. Bizarrely, this was one of three scripts that Gene Roddenberry proposed for the second Star Trek pilot, but NBC passed; good thing too, as the show might never have been picked up if this silly exercise in pointless action and half-baked civics was presented to the network. It ended up getting made deep in Season 2, and surprisingly didn’t kill the series outright.

4. “Plato’s Stepchildren”

Horrendous and embarrassing. That’s how I would describe this episode, which is nevertheless a landmark for containing the first interracial kiss in TV history (it’s just a shame that the network forced the director to shoot it from an angle that partially blocked Kirk’s lips locking with Uhura’s). While the kiss does earn a lot of goodwill, it’s not enough to salvage this tired rehash of stock plot points that had been done to death by this point, including a superior race of beings screwing around with the Enterprise and a culture that mirrored one from Earth’s past (ancient Greece, to be precise). And to top it all off, Shatner and Nimoy (under the Platonians’ control) are forced to sing and dance like a vaudeville act in one of the most cringeworthy scenes in Trek history.

3. “And the Children Shall Lead”

Responding to a distress call from an expedition on the planet Triacus, the Enterprise crew find everyone there dead – all except the children, who are in thrall to a malevolent alien presence that is using them to take control of a starship. Remembered for famous attorney Melvin Belli (atrociously) playing “Gorgan the Friendly Angel,” this is a limp disaster of an episode enlivened only by some especially hammy overacting from Shatner. The show offers almost nothing else of interest, and even the evil alien appears to be dressed in an old shower curtain. The children led this one, all right…straight off a cliff.

2. “Spock’s Brain”

The third season opener (what were they thinking…?) has developed somewhat of a following over the years, but that might be due to its sheer campiness. Spock’s brain goes missing and the Enterprise goes off to find it; turns out it’s being used to power an underground civilization of buxom but dumb women who keep a bunch of even dumber men as slaves. McCoy has to learn the ancient knowledge so he can put the brain back, with Spock directing him as he operates. An embarrassment to both Star Trek and science fiction, “Spock’s Brain” is good for a couple of laughs…but was apparently not meant to be a comedy.

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1. “The Way to Eden”

As pointed out in the excellent book These Are the Voyages (Volume 3) , “The Way to Eden” has some decent ideas percolating below the surface about retreating from an overly technological, perhaps overly sanitized society, along with finding the right balance between responsibility and non-conformity. It’s just too bad that everything else – from the costumes of the “space hippies” who take over (*sigh*) the Enterprise to find the mythical planet Eden, to the songs they sing, to their risible slang (“Are you One, Herbert?”) – is so absolutely awful and has aged badly. This was originally supposed to be an episode about Dr. McCoy reuniting with his long-estranged daughter Joanna, but how it mutated into this trainwreck could probably make for a good sci-fi story itself. Or not. 

Don Kaye | @donkaye

Don Kaye is an entertainment journalist by trade and geek by natural design. Born in New York City, currently ensconced in Los Angeles, his earliest childhood memory is…

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