star trek enterprise essential episodes

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Star Trek: Enterprise 's Must-Watch Episodes

We’ve spent the past few weeks boldly going through every Star Trek show — from i ts origins , to its highest highs , and its darkest chapters . We’ve even voyaged far and wide to give you the low down on the essential episodes of the franchise’s vast history. Now, it’s time to go back even further than the beginning: and chart Star Trek ’s furthest-flung prequel.

As part of our ongoing efforts to give you things to distract yourself in the moment of history in which we live, io9 is offering up weekly guides to the very best each Star Trek show has to offer. So if you’re about to follow our advice and help yourself to all the Star Trek , here are at least some highlights you can look forward to as you boldly go absolutely nowhere outside.

Broken Bow (Episodes 1 and 2)— When a Klingon messenger is waylaid by the Suliban, Earth decides its time to rush its experimental warp drive ship out of drydock and into action: the Enterprise NX-01.

Fight or Flight (Episode 3)— As the Enterprise crew adapts to their new life in space, the discovery of a corpse-strewn alien vessel has Ensign Sato questioning her role on the ship.

The Andorian Incident (Episode 7)— Oh thank god, Shran is here .

Silent Enemy (Episode 12)— When a mysterious new foe waylays the ship, Archer decides its time the Enterprise got some really big guns.

Dear Doctor (Episode 13)— The basis for the Prime Directive is argued when Archer and Doctor Phlox butt heads about helping out a sickened species.

Sleeping Dogs (Episode 14)— Finding a scuttled Klingon vessel , the crew finds themselves faced with the warrior species’ at-times-frustrating view of honor.

Two Days and Two Nights (Episode 25)— It’s a Risa episode ! Everyone takes a break on the iconic Trek paradise planet, only for most of the Enterprise team to find vacation not all that relaxing.

Shockwave, Part 1 (Episode 26)— The Enterprise seemingly causes an accident that destroys an entire colony, only to discover much larger forces are at play (one of Enterprise ’s most vital plotlines, the Temporal Cold War, really kicks off here).

Shockwave, Part 2 (Episode 1)— As the Suliban take over the Enterprise , Archer desperately tries to get back from the alternate 31st century.

Carbon Creek (Episode 2)— Everyone knows first contact between Zefram Cochrane and the Vulcans occured in 2063. But T’Pol has a very different story about the real first encounter between her people and humanity.

Minefield (Episode 3)— Encountering a deadly minefield, the Enterprise comes face to, err...not really face with a new species: the Romulans!

Cease Fire (Episode 15)— Tensions between Andoria and Vulcan over territory threaten to spill out into all-out war, and Archer is called in to mediate.

Future Tense (Episode 16)— After finding an abandoned vessel seemingly from the future, Archer finds himself face to face with another classic Trek race, the Tholians.

First Flight (Episode 24)— Informed about the death of a former colleague, Archer reminisces about his time in Starfleet’s NX program and Humanity’s quest to build a Warp 2 engine of its own.

The Expanse (Episode 26)— A new alien race, the Xindi, stage a surprise, devastating attack on Earth, changing everything for the Enterprise ’s mission.

The Shipment (Episode 7)— Enterprise meets the Xindi society for real, when they find a mining outpost working on the devastating weapon it wants to use to destroy Earth.

Twilight (Episode 8)— After an anomaly renders him unable to form long term memory, Archer wakes up one day to find out the Xindi-Earth conflict is over... and humanity lost.

Similitude (Episode 10)— When Phlox creates a clone of Tucker to save his life, the ethics behind this new form of life are brought into question.

Carpenter Street (Episode 11)— Archer and T’Pol go back to contemporary Earth to stop two Xindi from unleashing a bioweapon.

Proving Ground (Episode 13)— SHRAN’S BACK, BABY. The Andorians arrive to help the Enterprise find the Xindi weapon, only to reveal ulterior, motives.

Harbinger (Episode 15)— Trip and T’Pol hook up. Oh, and I guess the Enterprise finds out the identity of the real threat behind the Xindi’s plans, that’s also important.

Doctor’s Orders (Episode 16)— Doctor Phlox finds himself going a little bonkers when he’s tasked with sedating the crew to survive a long trip through a nebula. A worse version of Voyager ’s “One,” if only because no one on this show could be Seven of Nine, not even Phlox.

Azati Prime (Episode 18)— When the Xindi weapon is located, Archer races off on a suicide mission to destroy it, while the Enterprise is besieged by Xindi forces.

The Council (Episode 22)— A desperate Archer has to make his case to the Xindi Council that they’re being manipulated by the Sphere Builders.

Countdown (Episode 23)— The Xindi conflict continues, as Archer and rebelling Xindi factions race to stop the weapon from being armed.

Zero Hour (Episode 24)— With the weapon on its way to Earth, the Enterprise crew has to pull out all the stops to sav e the day.

Storm Front, Parts 1 and 2 (Episodes 1 and 2)— Remember when this show was about time travel war and not Giant Sphere War? Well, about that: now the crew is stuck in World War II and the Nazis have invaded America.

Borderland, Cold Station 12, and The Augments (Episodes 4-6)— To try and prevent war with the Klingon Empire, Archer has to team up with criminal geneticist Arik Soong. Spoilers: Soong doesn’t co-operate for long, and eventually gets the idea that maybe his bloodline should get into this whole “artificial lifeform” deal .

The Forge, Awakening, and Kir’Shara (Episodes 7-9)— The Vulcan Embassy on Earth is bombed, and Archer and T’Pol are called in to investigate. Finding themselves flung into a religious dispute that could reform Vulcan society altogether, the duo has to save the day while Enterprise holds back the Andorians from exploiting the situation. Which means, good news everyone: More Shran!

Babel One, United, and The Aenar (Episodes 12-14)— Speaking of “More Shran,” Archer finds himself at a nexus of peace discussions between the Tellarites, Andorians, and Vulcans that could one day form a vital stepping stone to wider unity between these civilizations, like...I dunno, some kind of united entity? Of multiple planets?

Affliction and Divergence (Episodes 15 and 16)— Phlox is kidnapped by Klingons looking to augment their species, leading to...well, an excuse to explain why Trek Klingons don’t look like TNG Klingons.

In a Mirror, Darkly, Parts 1 and 2 (Episodes 18 and 19)— In more fannish prequel joy, Enterprise goes Mirror Universe as we get to learn what happened to the Defiant in the Original Series episode “The Tholian Web.”

Demons and Terra Prime (Episodes 20 and 21)— A bunch of racist humans try to stop the founding of the Federation from happening. Hmmm, too real these days , perhaps.

These Are the Voyages... (Episode 22)— Would you like to watch a show completely undermine its characters, existing fanbase, and entire storyline just for some awkward TNG nostalgia? By all means stop before this, but in some ways, you have to see what might be the worse final episode of a Star Trek series ever.

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The 25 Best Episodes Of Star Trek: Enterprise Ranked

A radical departure from the previous four "Star Trek" series , the 2001 spin off "Star Trek: Enterprise" was a prequel series set barely a hundred years after Earth's first contact with extra terrestrials. Before the founding of the United Federation of Planets, before Earth had fleets of powerful starships, phasers, or even transporters, "Enterprise" chronicled the first experimental Warp 5 ship (the titular Enterprise) and its mission to explore the final frontier. While Earth's only alien friends, the Vulcans, remained skeptical of humans' ability to navigate interstellar affairs, Captain Jonathan Archer — consummate explorer — sets out to prove them wrong.

While the first two seasons were mostly standalone adventures that harkened back to classic "Trek" of old, Season 3 embraced a season-long story. It introduced the Xindi into the franchise as a nefarious new alien race comprised of five different species plotting to destroy Earth. The fourth season would be ambitious, turning to a series of multiple-episode stories that dipped into classic "Star Trek" mythology, too. Though never a hit in the ratings department "Star Trek: Enterprise" is better than you might remember.  It was unceremoniously canceled before it could make its fifth season, but the show has a number of gems from throughout its run. This is a list of its 25 best.

25. Dead Stop (Season 2, Episode 4)

In  "Dead Stop,"  Archer and Enterprise are still badly damaged from their disastrous brush with a Romulan mine in the previous episode. With no starbases in this era, the ship is on its own, and the captain begrudgingly puts out a general distress call for help. A passing Tellarite ship alerts them that there is a nearby space station where ships often travel for repairs, and so Archer sets off to find it. After a three day journey they discover an unmanned, automated repair station that offers to fix up their starship in exchange for some expendable supplies they have on-hand.

Equipped with incredible replication technology and even a recreational lounge for the crew to spend their time in during the repairs, the station seems too good to be true. While Archer is suspicious of their good fortune, Tucker and Reed get curious about the station's inner workings — and come across mysterious chamber they can't access. But Archer's suspicions are confirmed when Ensign Mayweather turns up dead, and they suddenly realize that there may be more to the helpful station than mere repairs.

24. Damage (Season 3, Episode 19)

In classic "Star Trek" fashion, the crew of Enterprise are faced with an impossible ethical and moral choice in the Season 3 episode  "Damage."  Former "Deep Space Nine" star Casey Biggs guest stars as the captain of an alien vessel who comes to the aid of Enterprise, which is limping through space after a Xindi attack. Heavily damaged, Enterprise is losing life support — and with no warp coil and thrusters inactive, the ship is functionally adrift. 

The life-saving chance encounter with the Illyrian vessel is a boon to Enterprise, but their emergency assistance isn't enough for Archer. The Enterprise captain demands that the Illyrian ship hand over their warp coil so they can continue their mission. The alien captain refuses, as it would leave them stranded just like Enterprise. Determined to stop the Xindi at any cost, Archer wrestles with whether to steal the coil and complete their mission, believing that crossing a moral line is justified when billions of lives are stake. The Xindi Council, meanwhile, debates their confrontation with Archer, with Degra and his allies beginning to question their quest to destroy Earth. 

23. Awakening (Season 4, Episode 8)

Part two of a three part story set on Vulcan — a rare extended look at the planet of Spock's origin –  "Awakening"  sees Archer and T'Pol finally make contact with the rebel Syrannites who live in The Forge. Their leader, a woman named T'Pau (a character seen in "Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Amok Time" as an elder Vulcan priestess) maintains her innocence in the bombing of the Earth Embassy. T'Pol is skeptical, having heard of the radical Syrannites ways. T'Pau too is distrustful of Archer and his Vulcan companion, suspecting them of being the terrorists themselves.

But upon learning of the death of the Vulcan named Arev, T'Pau tells them that he was in fact their leader Syrran, who possessed the katra — the living soul — of Vulcan's messiah Surak. As unbelievable as it sounds to Archer, T'Pau believes that Syrran may have transferred the katra to him before his death, and its now up to her to retrieve it to save the future of their world. Meanwhile on Enterprise, Soval attempts to get to the bottom of the terrorist attack via the use of a mind meld, which gets him into trouble with V'Las, the leader of the Vulcan High Command, who believes the ancient ritual is blasphemy.

22. Terra Prime (Season 4, Episode 21)

Before starring as Admiral Marcus in "Star Trek: Into Darkness," actor Peter Weller first appeared as another corrupt militant Earth leader in what many see as the real "Enterprise" series finale,  "Terra Prime."  A fitting conclusion to the overall premise of the series, the episode concludes a two-part story that began with a xenophobic mining leader named John Frederick Paxton (Weller), who is enraged at the prospect of Earth entering into an interstellar alliance. In response, Paxton and his radical extremist group called Terra Prime have turned the Mars-based verteron array into a weapon, and threaten to unleash it on Earth unless every alien is forcibly expelled from the planet.

As part of his plan to frighten the people of Earth, Paxton also genetically engineered a baby using the DNA of Trip and T'Pol, creating the first Vulcan/Human hybrid. With Enterprise called in to deal with the crisis, Archer's two officers have an added personal incentive to stop the madman, seeing the baby as their own daughter, and hoping to rescue her from Paxton's clutches. But stopping Terra Prime and signing the first charter of the Coalition of Planets won't be an easy task, as the crew discovers that Paxton and his followers aren't the only ones nervous about galactic peace.

21. Strategem (Season 3, Episode 14)

At the height of the war with the Xindi, Archer hatches a diabolical scheme to steal enemy secrets in the mind-bending psychological thriller  "Strategem."  Aboard a Xindi shuttle, the villainous Degra awakens to find Archer with him, disheveled and exhausted. They're being pursued by Xindi Insectoid patrol ships. Degra has no memory of how he got aboard the craft, but Archer explains that the Xindi plan to destroy Earth was a success, but in its wake, the Insectoids launched an assault on the other factions. Turning on the their Xindi races, they imprisoned Degra, and Archer claims that the two of them have been cellmates in a Xindi prison for the past three years. Having escaped captivity just recently, a drug used for interrogation has erased his memory.

But as the their escape from Xindi space continues, Degra becomes increasingly suspicious of Archer's story. And he's right to be — it's soon revealed that the shuttle is all part of an elaborate deception to trick Degra into revealing top secret Xindi intelligence. As Degra tests Archer on his claim that they are now friends and allies, Archer's plan begins to unravel, forcing him into more and more drastic measures. But can Archer get what he needs before Degra discovers the truth?

20. Future Tense (Season 2, Episode 16)

A seemingly alien shuttlepod is discovered in  "Future Tense."  When it is brought on board, clues to its origins only raise more questions. After examining the vessel, it's determined to not be alien at all, but an Earth pod from the distant future, sent back in time for unknown reasons. The puzzle is further complicated when both the Suliban and the peculiar Tholians come looking for the craft, and are willing to kill to get it. Looking for information on what looks more and more like a part of the Temporal Cold War, Archer examines the future database left behind by the mysterious time agent called Daniels.

Though T'Pol remains skeptical of all things time travel related, the vessel in their launch bay starts emitting unusual readings. These readings cause a brief temporal anomaly aboard Enterprise, preventing further investigation into the apparent time pod. As a small fleet of Suliban ships close in, a Vulcan combat cruiser comes to Enterprise's aid and engages the Tholians. With Enterprise outnumbered, T'Pol wants the pod destroyed, while Archer wants to use it as a means to become a more active participant in the Temporal Cold War.

19. The Forge (Season 4, Episode 7)

The first part of the three part Vulcan Syrannite saga,  "The Forge"  begins with a terrorist bombing of the Earth Embassy on Vulcan. The likely culprits are a rogue faction of Vulcans called Syrannites, followers of a man named Syrran, who takes a different interpretations of the teachings of the Vulcan religious figure Surak. With Enterprise being the nearest Earth ship to Vulcan, Archer and crew head to the planet to assist in the investigation. T'Pol and Archer set out on foot to the Vulcan Forge — a desolate region of the planet that's impenetrable to scanners — where the Syrannites are said to make their home.

During their trek, the pair are saved from a deadly animal attack by a traveler called Arev, who claims to be on a religious pilgrimage. But after continuing on their journey together, Archer and T'Pol become distrustful of the man, and he of them, as there is much more to Arev then it would seem. Meanwhile back on Enterprise, Ambassador Soval is investigating the bombing himself and begins to wonder if the Syrannites are actually responsible. To get to the truth, Soval considers using a forbidden Vulcan ritual that could threaten his position ... and his life.

18. The Expanse (Season 2, Episode 26)

The explosive Season 2 finale  "The Expanse"  opens with the Enterprise being recalled to Earth after a shocking and devastating attack by the Xindi, a mysterious alien race. Using a massive sphere-like weapon, the Xindi blasted the North American continent, killing more than seven million people. Trip's sister Elizabeth was revealed to be one of the victims of the disaster, making it a doubly personal tragedy for the crew, who are now set on revenge against a new, bloodthirsty enemy. 

Visited by the shadowy future figure, Archer is informed that the Xindi's attack was a pre-emptive strike after a faction in the Temporal Cold War told them that humans would one day destroy their homeworld. With the Vulcans sympathetic but uninterested in a war, and no other Warp 5 vessels in their fleet, the Enterprise is on its own to find the Xindi and confront their latest foe. But locating and getting to them is easier said than done, as their native star system resides on the other side of the Delphic Expanse — a vast region of space littered with dangerous spatial anomalies. And the Xindi aren't the only ones out to get them.

17. The Aenar (Season 4, Episode 14)

"The Aenar"  is the dramatic finale of a three-part Season 4 story that puts the focus on the Andorians. After discovering that a Romulan drone ship is being piloted by an Aenar — a mysterious sub-race of ice-dwelling Andorians with powerful telepathic abilities — Enterprise, with the help of Commander Shran of the Imperial Guard, head to Andoria to learn more. Amidst the planet's subterranean ice caves, they find Jhamel, an innocent Aenar girl whose brother had been recently been abducted — and may be a slave to the Romulans.

The Romulan plan to use the drone to instigate a full scale war between Andorians, Vulcans, Tellarites, and Terrans, is slowly unravelling — forcing Senator Vrax to push Valdore to more extreme measures. Aboard Enterprise, Phlox and Reed work together to build their own drone interface so they can commandeer the Romulan ship and turn it against them. But to use it, they'll need their own telepathic pilot. They may have found one in Jhamel, but to complete her mission and stop the Romulans, she may have to make a terrible sacrifice.

16. Shockwave, Part 2 (Season 2, Episode 1)

After the Season 1 finale ended on a cliffhanger,  "Shockwave, Part 2"  picks up aboard Enterprise with the Suliban in pursuit and looking for its captain — who is nowhere to be found. Outgunned and overmatched, T'Pol surrenders the ship and allows the Suliban to search the vessel, much to the dismay of Tucker. Meanwhile, Archer has been taken forward several hundred years into the 31st century by Daniels, where a change in the timeline has resulted in the destruction of Earth's entire civilization. Getting back to fix history is a problem, however, because every time portal has been destroyed.

Back on Earth in the 22nd century, Admiral Forrest fights with the Vulcan High Command, who demand that Enterprise be recalled, believing they're guilty of destroying the mining colony on Paragaan II. While Forrest is steadfast that Archer is innocent, Soval sends a Vulcan cruiser to intercept them. But with Archer stuck in a devastated future, and T'Pol at the mercy of the Suliban in the present, the fight to prove their innocence may be the least of their problems.

15. In A Mirror Darkly, Part 2 (Season 4, Episode 19)

"In A Mirror Darkly, Part 2"  finished up one of the most daring two-parters in the series, a story set entirely within the confines of the parallel Mirror Universe. In the conclusion, Archer has taken command of the future USS Defiant — the same class as the original 1966 Enterprise — discovered in Tholian space. Now in command of the most powerful Earth vessel in their time, Archer easily destroys the Tholians. But when Admiral Gardner arrives to take the ship, Archer defies orders and kills his superior, now intent on returning to Earth and declaring himself Emperor. 

But soon Archer must face enemies both from within and externally, as cutthroat members of his own crew attempt to overthrow him, and non-humans Phlox, Soval, and T'Pol plot to fight back against the fascist Starfleet. A twisted alternate reality adventure with deep ties to the classic "Star Trek" series , it's both a fun nostalgia trip and a nail-biting thriller unlike anything the franchise has ever seen. With a dramatic twist ending, it has become a favorite among longtime fans for far more than its faithful recreation of the original classic starship.

14. The Council (Season 3, Episode 22)

"The Council"  follows the events of "E2," where Degra agreed to escort Archer and Enterprise to the Xindi Council. There, Archer will show them his evidence that they are being manipulated by the mysterious race of Sphere Builders and that Earth is not their enemy. Though they are able to convince Dolim to let them pass, the Reptilian Commander remains deeply skeptical and distrustful of Archer's motives. When they arrive, the rest of the council is equally cautious, and want real proof that the Sphere Builders are not truly their allies if they are to call off their attack on Earth.

Aboard Enterprise, T'Pol puts together a team to infiltrate one of the enemy spheres to get more information on its systems in the hopes of finding a weakness. Taking one of the MACO officers with them, T'Pol, Reed, and Mayweather successfully get what they're after, but at a high cost. Back at the Council, Dolim gets his revenge for the destruction of the Reptilian ship.

13. Similitude (Season 3, Episode 10)

While making their way through Xindi space, Tucker is near-mortally wounded in "Similitude."  Unable to lose their chief engineer on such a critical mission, Doctor Phlox puts Trip in stasis and comes up with a radical treatment. To save him, Phlox will use a rare species of larvae to create a rapidly aging clone of Tucker with just a two week lifespan, allowing them to use its neural tissue after its natural death. Though Archer and Phlox struggle with the ethics of bringing a life into being just to harvest its organs, they ultimately agree that the stakes are too high to be concerned with the moral dilemma.

The problems begin however when the clone — nicknamed "Sim" — develops into his own person. In just a matter of days, Sim becomes a valued member of the crew and must come to terms with who and what he is. But with many of Trip's own emotions and faint memories, he develops friendships with his crew mates and even begins to fall in love with the ship's resident Vulcan science officer. A classic examination of ethics as only "Trek" can do it, the episode also serves as a turning point in the relationship between Trip and T'Pol. 

12. Shockwave, Pt. 1 (Season 1, Episode 26)

In  "Shockwave, Pt. 1,"  Archer takes Enterprise to a distant mining colony on the planet Paraagan II. During their trip to the surface, an apparent shuttle accident ignites the planet's atmosphere, killing everyone on the planet's surface. In the wake of the accident, Starfleet recalls Enterprise and officially ends their mission to explore deep space, with the Vulcans lack of faith in Archer's command now seemingly justified. But while Archer struggles with guilt over the deaths of the colonists, taking the full weight of the blame, he's suddenly transported into the future where he meets crewman Daniels. 

There, the enigmatic time agent tells him that the destruction of Paraagan II was never supposed to have happened, and that someone has begun meddling with history. Knowing he wasn't responsible for the accident, a reinvigorated Archer sets out to prove his innocence and stop the Suliban from interfering with Enterprise's mission. With evidence of alien involvement in the disaster, Archer must get the information to Starfleet — but they're suddenly stopped in their tracks by a fleet of enemy ships, who demand Archer be handed over to them.

11. Proving Ground (Season 3, Episode 13)

"Proving Ground"  continues Archer and Enterprise's mission through the Delphic Expanse. Having lost much of their data that has helped them navigate the region, they're in for a rough road ahead. Just when they get themselves into trouble, an Andorian ship appears. It's commanded by their old friend Shran, who claims he's there to help them find the Xindi weapon. While he insists his motives are pure, Archer suspects there's something else going on. But he's in no position to decline the offer, and they begin working together to investigate the site of the Xindi's prototype weapon.

With a daring plan to raid the Xindi's test site, Archer's suspicions are confirmed when Shran reveals his real plan: to steal the Xindi weapon for himself. Long at war with the Vulcans, Shran believes the weapon will make the difference in their conflict. But Archer wants to destroy the weapon, and will do whatever it takes to prevent it from falling into another's hands — even if it means an end to his new alliance with the Andorians.

10. Kir'Shara (Season 4, Episode 9)

The final part of the 3-part Syrannite saga,  "Kir'Shara"  the Vulcan High Command starts a war on two fronts, with their star fleet preparing to attack Andoria, while agents on Vulcan are hunting the rebel Syrannites. Soval, aboard Enterprise tries to warn the Andorians, but only succeeds in angering Shran, who believes the Vulcan Ambassador is setting him up. Tucker, in command of Enterprise, attempts to broker a truce, but soon becomes the Vulcans' next target.

At the same time, T'Pol and Archer — thanks to the katra of Surak in his head — have helped T'Pau and the Syrannites locate the Kir'Shara, the mythical artifact said to contain the Vulcan leader's original true teachings. Believing the relic's discovery will bring about a reformation and new period of enlightenment for their people, they hope to return it to the Vulcan High Command before and avert the war with the Andorians. But to get it back, they'll have to evade the attack parties working for the corrupt Vulcan leader V'Las. T'Pau, meanwhile, also believes she can cure T'Pol's Pa'nar syndrome with a mind meld, but the Enterprise's science officer is skeptical of the ancient and taboo ritual.

9. In A Mirror, Darkly, Pt. 1 (Season 4, Episode 18)

In part one of a two part story,  "In A Mirror, Darkly, Part 1"  begins in the middle of the final scene of the movie "Star Trek: First Contact," when Vulcans first landed on Earth and met humans. But instead of embracing the alien visitors, Zephram Cochrane attacks them and raids their ship. Flash forward a century and we meet Captain Forrest and his first officer Jonathan Archer of the ISS Enterprise. Archer claims to have gotten word of an incredible starship detected in Tholian space and proposes a mission to steal it, believing it to be the key to ultimate power. 

When Captain Forrest declines the mission, Archer overthrows his captain and takes command of Enterprise. With a new team in place, Archer believes he's safe from mutiny and sets out to uncover the secret of the rumored starship. When they arrive, they find the ship contains wondrous futuristic technology, and realize it may be from an alternate reality more than a century in the future. But to get to it, Archer must overcome the Tholian's deadly web and ferret out a saboteur who is attempting to free Captain Forrest and retake Enterprise.

8. Babel One (Season 4, Episode 12)

Archer and Enterprise play peacemaker in  "Babel One,"  part one of a three part story from the series' fourth and final season. The ship is escorting a Tellarite ship to Babel One, where Ambassador Gral will take part in a trade summit. Relishing playing a bigger part in galactic affairs, Archer's escort mission is disrupted by a distress call from an Andorian vessel, under attack from an unknown ship. But when they arrive, it's too late — two Andorian ships have been destroyed. Andorian Commander Shran comes aboard with accusations that the Tellarites are responsible.

With the Tellarite Ambassador onboard, Shran wants revenge, and the two make threats against each other. As Archer attempts to keep them separated until they can get to the bottom of what's happened, Enterprise comes under attack from what appears to be an Andorian ship. But a discrepancy in energy readings leads T'Pol to believe a third party might be involved, attempting to incite a war between galactic powers in the region. With both Gral and Shran skeptical, Archer must find out what's really going on before Gral and Shran start a war between their people.

7. United (Season 4, Episode 13)

"United" direct follow-up to "Babel One" and the second part of a three-parter that sees an unknown ship attacking various alien ships the region — including Terran, Tellarite, and Andorian vessels — in an apparent attempt to sow division and distrust between their peoples. We quickly discover, however, that it's the Romulans responsible for the attacks, using a new marauder drone ship developed by Admiral Valdore and overseen by a high-ranking Romulan Senator. The ship uses a telepathic pilot, but their plans begin to collapse when Tucker and Reed are able to get aboard the unmanned ship and sabotage its systems.

Back on Enterprise, Archer believes he can expose the Romulan's plot, but he'll need more than 100 starships to establish a surveillance grid between them to do it. To get a fleet of that size will require the help of the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites, in a mission that will test their trust. But if it works, it will thwart the Romulans, and perhaps even lead to a newfound cooperation between the longtime rivals.

6. Regeneration (Season 2, Episode 23)

Set more than 200 years before the Enterprise-D's first run-in with the Borg,  "Regeneration"  might seem like a continuity breaker, but a clever time travel twist allows the Borg to make their presence known. After the events of "Star Trek: First Contact" where the Borg traveled back to 2063, it's now revealed a part of the destroyed enemy ship crashed into the Antarctic. Nearly a hundred years later, an Earth research team stumbles upon the cybernetic beings and unwittingly re-activates them. After assimilating the scientists and converting a ship for their use, the newly re-awakened Borg attempt to reconnect with the Borg of this era, and it's up to Archer and Enterprise to stop them.

Invaded by the Borg, the story takes a twist when Phlox is attacked by the Borg and must develop a cure to assimilation before he becomes one of them. But with technology 200 years out of date, how can the 22nd century Enterprise hope to stop the most powerful enemy the 24th century Enterprise ever faced? Like "Star Trek: First Contact," this episode plays like a horrific zombie story, evoking a genuine sense of dread and terror as the Borg slowly re-emerge as a deadly threat.

5. Countdown (Season 3, Episode 23)

"Countdown"  was the penultimate episode of Season 3, as the Xindi war barreled towards its climactic ending. Despite many within the Xindi siding with Archer and Enterprise against the attack on Earth, the Reptilians and Insectoids forge ahead with their plan to destroy the planet. In a last ditch effort to stop them from arming their ultimate weapon sphere, Archer must somehow convince the Xindi Aquatics to aid him — and the Xindi Primates — in their fight to prevent Earth's Armageddon.

The unlikely alliance heads out to meet the enemy, while Dolim and the Reptilians use a captured Hoshi Sato to help activate their doomsday weapon. In the midst of the battle, Reed and the MACOs lead a mission to retrieve Sato, with one major character making the ultimate sacrifice to complete their mission. But all hope may be lost when the Sphere Builders themselves, the mysterious race that has been guiding the Xindi all along, directly intervene to ensure that Archer fails.

4. Zero Hour (Season 3, Episode 24)

The final episode of Season 3,  "Zero Hour"  is the epic conclusion to the season-long Xindi War that saw a race of malevolent aliens try to wipe out all of humanity. In this final installment, it's T'Pol in command of Enterprise in the final assault on the Xindi fleet, hoping to halt the massive weapon spheres that is on a direct course for Earth. But when they arrive, they find the Sphere Builders are ready for them, with a powerful energy field protecting the network of spheres. 

Captain Archer, meanwhile, will stop at nothing to end the threat of the Xindi weapon. Entering its vortex with a plan to stall its operation, he manages to get help from an unexpected ally. In a final showdown, Enterprise's captain comes face to face with Dolim, the Reptilian leader, and only one will make it out alive. But the end of the Sphere Builder's plans isn't the end of trouble for Archer, with problems in time causing ripple effects that prove more damaging than any alien weapon.

3. Carbon Creek (Season 2, Episode 2)

"Carbon Creek"  flashes back some 200 years to a rural town in Eastern Pennsylvania, circa 1957. There, a Vulcan research team has crash landed. It is led by T'Mir, the ancestor of Enterprise's science officer T'Pol. Stuck on the backwater planet, their ship cannot function, and their rescue could be months away — or longer. Against her better judgement, T'Mir accepts her fellow officer Mestral's suggestion that they get acquainted with the locals of the nearby town of Carbon Creek, as a way of getting supplies to sustain them while they wait for rescue.

But as the days drag on, the three Vulcans get more closer with the people of the town, making friends and even getting jobs, with Mestral working as a coal miner. Though T'Mir wants to keep her distance from the primitive humans in the town, Mestral grows a fondness for them. T'Mir does not approve, and is even more alarmed when Mestral reveals he has taken a human lover and wishes to stay behind and build a life on Earth. With a message of tolerance and understanding, "Carbon Creek" is an episode sure to leave you feeling hopeful for the future.

2. Azati Prime (Season 3, Episode 18)

"Azati Prime"  sees Archer and Enterprise find where the Xindi are building their super weapon. Hatching a plan to infiltrate the facility and destroy it before it becomes operative, Archer knows it's a mission he will not be coming back from. But just as he's about embark on his suicide mission, time agent Daniels whisks Archer away to the future to convince him not to go through with it: history needs him alive if the United Federation of Planets is to ever become a reality and the timeline kept intact. But Archer is unconvinced that his role in history is that critical, and puts his plan into motion.

When Archer's mission goes awry and he's taken captive by Dolim — leader of the Xindi Reptilians — he must somehow convince the Xindi Primate Degra that he's not their enemy. With little more than a relic given to him by Daniels, he must prove that the information from the Sphere Builders — who've guided their entire mission — cannot be trusted.

1. Twilight (Season 3, Episode 8)

In the middle of the ongoing war with the Xindi, "Twilight" sees Captain Archer injured while saving T'Pol from a dangerous anomaly. He suffers a form of amnesia as a result. Unable to retain long term memories, Archer is removed from command, and T'Pol becomes captain of the ship. But without Archer on the bridge, Enterprise's mission to stop the Xindi and save Earth fails. The planet is destroyed, and the last remnants of humanity are scattered and listless, with T'Pol and Archer living on a remote planet where she has become his caretaker in his deteriorating condition.

But a visit from Doctor Phlox leads to a possible cure that would not only remove Archer's amnesia, but send him back to the time of the original disaster that caused it. If successful, Archer might even be able to go back to change history and save humanity. But to treat Archer, Phlox must bring him aboard Enterprise, and a sudden attack from the Xindi makes it a race against time to turn back the clock and prevent the annihilation of Earth.

Screen Rant

Star trek: enterprise's 20 best episodes, ranked.

Star Trek: Enterprise's 20 best episodes use darker themes and moral ambiguity as Captain Jonathan Archer and crew explore the stars.

• Star Trek: Enterprise is a character-driven prequel that explores the origins and moral ambiguities of various topics, adding depth to the different characters.
• The premiere episode, "Broken Bow," is a gritty, adventure-filled introduction to an inexperienced crew facing prejudices and tackling ethical dilemmas.
• The series features thought-provoking episodes that examine themes of prejudice, ethics, loyalty, and the greater good while delving into the unknown depths of space.

Star Trek: Enterprise first aired in 2001, designed as a back-to-basics character-driven prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series . Picking up many of the franchise's original themes and core values, Star Trek: Enterprise's best episodes explore the origins and moral ambiguities of such topics, simultaneously addressing ethical dilemmas and assumptions while granting greater depth and access to the different characters. Set in the 22nd century, the series introduces a previously unseen and untested crew and follows their adventures as they set off into the vast, very much unknown.

Casting Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) as a flawed yet approachable starship commander with a history of piloting experimental warp technology, Star Trek: Enterprise establishes an intimate yet casual atmosphere that contrasts the gritty hostility of space and allows for immediate connection with its main characters. When the Enterprise NX-01, Starfleet's first Warp 5 starship capable of deep space exploration, launches ahead of schedule, lesser in crew numbers and ship size than in any previous series, Enterprise 's premiere episode that pits prejudices with first contacts and establishes its role among the stars. Here are the 20 best episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Star Trek: Enterprise Cast & Character Guide

20 "broken bow" (enterprise season 1, episodes 1 & 2).

Star Trek: Enterprise' s premiere introduces Captain Jonathan Archer, Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), and the crew of the Enterprise NX-01. Kicking off with United Earth's First Contact with the Klingons , "Broken Bow" delivers a pace that offers the unexpected against an inexperienced crew with inferior technology and fewer space-smarts than other Star Trek series. Though the series took a while to find its place in the franchise, this first episode is a gritty, adventure-laden first step into the great beyond, although it's also widely remembered for introducing the sexually charged elements - the decontamination scene - that would become synonymous with Enterprise's 4-season run.

19 "Vox Sola" (Enterprise Season 1, Episode 21)

"Vox Sola" is a fascinating study of the "seek out new life" clause in Starfleet's Captain's Oath. The episode begins with a failure in communication and an unrealized cultural taboo while a second undiscovered species finds its way aboard. Craving connection, the symbiotic lifeform ensnares four crewmembers. Paving the way for Star Trek's first musical episode , the creature's language combines musical notes and mathematical formulas. It's a pleasant return to Star Trek's awed curiosity at the unknown.

18 "Detained" (Enterprise Season 1, Episode 21)

Notable as the episode that reunited Scott Bakula with Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap , "Detained" is a dark allegory on prejudice. When Archer and Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) wake up in a Tandaran internment camp, they are told that they'll face a magistrate by the morally complex Colonel Grat (Dean Stockwell). With the Enterprise out of contact, this episode holds a mirror to discrimination across multiple levels.

17 "Regeneration" (Enterprise Season 2, Episode 23)

Archer and his crew must stop the Borg after cybernetic remnants from events in Star Trek: First Contact are discovered buried in the Arctic and inadvertently reactivated. As Borg nanites begin to assimilate Doctor Phlox (John Billingsley) on Enterprise, it's a race against time and an uphill battle against incessant, adaptive technology from 200 years into the future. Altering Star Trek: The Next Generation history , this episode offers a genuinely tense experience through the Enterprise crew's naivety of the insidious threat later posed by the Borg, and from the transmission to their collective with Earth's coordinates.

Every Star Trek Show & Movie That Fought The Borg & What Happened

16 "proving ground" (enterprise season 3, episode 13).

With Enterprise hampered by the loss of navigational data, it's an uncertain and potentially deadly trek through the Delphic Expanse's spatial anomalies. Heavily damaged by a dangerous vortex, the Enterprise escapes with assistance from Andorian Commander Shran (Jeffrey Combs). The episode is an excellent delve into themes of characterization and motive, twisting a web of righteous agenda to push against tenuous trust. In a test of nerve vaguely reminiscent of Captain Kirk's Corbomite maneuver , Archer threatens to trigger the Xindi weapon's detonation sequence.

15 "The Andorian Incident" (Enterprise Season 1, Episode 7)

An impromptu visit to the sacred P'Jem Vulcan monastery goes awry in one of Star Trek: Enterprise 's most significant first-season episodes. Directed by Star Trek: Voyager's Roxann Dawson, "The Andorian Incident" introduces the antagonistic relationship between Andorians and Vulcans, and makes the Andorians truly matter for the first time since their introduction in Star Trek: The Original Series . "The Andorian Incident" debuts the charismatic Commander Shran, whose suspicions about the Vulcans' actions are confirmed when the monastery is exposed as concealing a covert surveillance post.

14 "Similitude" (Enterprise Season 3, Episode 10)

"Similitude" offers a sociologically relevant and thought-provoking examination of ethics and accountability. When Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) is severely injured, Archer and Phlox embark on a morally questionable plan to save him - a mimetic symbiote as a neurological donor. The procedure will kill the donor, named Sim, who may be able to extend his own life through experimental surgery. The uncomfortable scenario is somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek: Voyager s eason 2, episode 24 "Tuvix," balancing the idea of 'the greater good' against humanist values.

13 "The Augments" (Enterprise Season 4, Episode 6)

The final episode of a three-part story that draws inspiration from Star Trek's previous encounters with augmented humans . "The Augments" indirectly compares Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban) with its genetically engineered group, each with an aggressive bent and focus on supremacy. Notable for reuniting Star Trek: The Next Generation actors LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner as director and guest star, respectively, the episode leaps from deadly exposure to pathogens and open space, to attempted genocide and instigated war, to mutiny, vengeance, and murder.

Khan & Every Augment Super Power In Star Trek

12 "stratagem" (enterprise season 3, episode 14).

A careful series of ruses play out in "Stratagem," which opens with Archer and Degra (Randy Oglesby), a Xindi Council member , both haggard and exhausted. This Enterprise episode is a powerful character study of two rivals confined together, seemingly three years into the future. Degra struggles with a missing memory and suspicions about the validity of his friend's explanations, and it's a cautious balance between cooperation and distrust from both parties. Meanwhile, Archer cautiously delves for the information that might save Earth.

11 "Damage" (Enterprise Season 3, Episode 19)

With Earth at risk of destruction, the Enterprise falls victim to a crippling attack leaving it vulnerable and adrift. Captain Archer faces a terrible ethical dilemma when they encounter an Illyrian space vessel , ultimately stealing their warp coil to restore the Enterprise's engines. Wrecked with guilt but determined to complete his mission, Archer believes his choice was necessary but visibly bends under the weight of accountability. It's a stark, vital episode that asks, 'Do the ends justify the means?'

10 "Shockwave, Part 1" (Enterprise Season 1, Episode 26)

In one of the most dramatic openings to a Star Trek episode ever, an Enterprise shuttle accidentally ignites the atmosphere of Paraagan II and incinerates the 3,600 colonists on the moon's surface. In the heavy wake of the horrific incident, the Enterprise is ordered back to Earth with its mission canceled. Enter temporal agent. Transported back and later forward, Archer finds proof of sabotage but ends up stranded in a devastated landscape with no way home. Enterprise season 1's finale cliffhanger is a taut, unrelenting episode that's both convincingly understated and emotionally wrenching. Powerful and conflicting emotions lend importance and depth to the episode's subject.

9 "Awakening" (Enterprise Season 4, Episode 8)

Developing the characters of Vulcan icon T'Pau (Kara Zediker) and Surak (Bruce Gray), first seen in Star Trek: The Original Series , "Awakening" sets a dark tone in an allegorical episode that casts the Vulcan High Council as the Catholic Church and Vulcan's Syrannites as Protestant Reformists. It's also a startlingly relevant commentary on increased and unchecked governmental power using the threat of terrorism to legitimize creeping surveillance and control. As Archer and T'Pol contact the Syrannite group and discover Archer now carries Surak's katra, Vulcan authorities swiftly maneuver to attack.

10 Times Vulcans Were Star Trek Villains

8 "kir'shara" (enterprise season 4, episode 9).

"Kir'Shara" continues the previous Enterprise episode, "Kir'Shara's" themes of reformation and enlightenment. It's a high-stakes ending packed with revelations, contrasts, and uncertainties. Bringing some clarity to long-confusing Vulcan politics, it is also a confrontation of political manipulation and maneuvering that is even more uncomfortable when contrasted with the pacifism of the Syrannite group and Star Trek' s core value of peace. As the Enterprise attempts to avert war between the Vulcans and Andorians, Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau reveal the Embassy bombing as a pretext to attack.

7 "Divergence" (Enterprise Season 4, Episode 16)

Several Star Trek threads come together over this successful two-part Klingon-central storyline. In "Divergence," the tense second episode, Doctor Phlox works against time to cure the Klingon virus before the facility - and everyone in it - is destroyed to contain the spread of the disease. The mysterious and morally shady Section 31 also has an established role here, with Armory Officer Lt. Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating) locked in the Enterprise's brig for his involvement with the secretive agency. It's an exciting play on themes of loyalty and morality, meeting Star Trek: Enterprise 's brief to explore ethics with a dark lens and a focus on characterization.

6 "The Expanse" (Enterprise Season 2, Episode 26)

Star Trek: Enterprise 's season 2 finale is an alarming and unexpected upending of the show's status quo, setting up the serialized and more urgent Enterprise season 3. Introducing a new alien threat, the Xindi, "The Expanse" lays the foundations for the entirety of the third season and ups the stakes with Star Trek: Enterprise's Temporal War . Earth suffers catastrophic losses when blindsided by a devastating attack. It's a significant episode for T'Pol and a study of raw emotional instinct - particularly for Trip, who loses his sister to the attack.

5 "United" (Enterprise Season 4, Episode 13)

This Emmy-nominated story is a pivotal point in Star Trek: Enterprise , successfully bringing together the founding species of Star Trek 's not-yet Federation. To combat the threat of an unidentified Romulan marauder, and rescue his absent crew members, Archer needs the assistance of the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. When Shran challenges the Tellerite Naarg (Kevin Brief) to a duel, Archer steps in as champion to preserve negotiations and ultimately wins the cooperation of both races. The episode is an essential, formative insight into the characters and development of Star Trek 's foundations.

How Star Trek Enterprise Changed The Franchise For The Better

4 "the council" (enterprise season 3, episode 22).

"A lot can happen in a day," Captain Archer comments in this emotional rollercoaster episode that also sets up a far-reaching Vulcan axiom: the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. "The Council" finally brings together the Enterprise crew and the five different Xindi factions. With threat levels rapidly shifting, the Xindi Council ruptures into division, kidnap, and murder as clear lines and loyalties are drawn or broken. It's a critical episode that brings the Xindi story arc significantly towards a wrenching climax and launches the super-weapon to destroy Earth.

3 "Azati Prime" (Enterprise Season 3, Episode 18)

"Azati Prime" is an emotional whirlwind of caution, triumph, and defeat as the crew of the Enterprise tracks down the Xindi weapon and attempts to destroy it. Amid interference from temporal agents, a failed suicide mission, and a subsequent savage interrogation, the episode delivers a series of stark yet powerful moments. This Enterprise episode contrasts bleak with bittersweet, as Captain Archer torments his captors with a resigned acceptance yet begins to win the benefit of the doubt.

2 "Twilight" (Enterprise Season 3, Episode 8)

"Twilight" is a somewhat circular apocalyptic story set in an alternate timeline. Relieved of his captaincy, Archer's diagnosis changes the course of both his and the Enterprise crew's lives. This Enterprise season 3 classic examines the emotional consequences of adjusting to living with a life-altering condition and caring for someone dealing with one. It's a love story of sacrifice and loyalty, indirectly echoing Star Trek's famous phrase: Let me help.

1 "Terra Prime" (Enterprise Season 4, Episode 21)

Unofficially acknowledged as the actual and most fitting final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise , "Terra Prime" channels Star Trek 's deepest-held core values. Delivering his most remarkable speech of the series, Archer champions bringing worlds together - a feat more potent in the wake of hostilities by a xenophobic hate group intent on division and the notion of purity. It's a nod to an essential Star Trek ideal and a glimpse at the establishment of the United Federation of Planets.

Let’s Watch Star Trek

Enterprise Episode Guide

Broken Bow Rating: 3 – Watch Fight or Flight Rating: 3 – Watch Strange New World Rating: 1 – Skip Unexpected Rating: 3 – Watch Terra Nova Rating: 2 – Skippable The Andorian Incident Rating: 4 – Watch Breaking the Ice Rating: 2 – Skip Civilization Rating: 2 – Skippable Fortunate Son Rating: 2 – Skippable Cold Front Rating: 3 – Watch Silent Enemy Rating: 4 – Watch Dear Doctor Rating: 1 – Skip Sleeping Dogs Rating: 3 – Watch Shadows of P’Jem Rating: 3 – Watch Shuttlepod One Rating: 0 – Skip Fusion Rating: 2 – Watch for Continuity Rogue Planet Rating: 1 – Skip Acquisition Rating: 2 – Skippable Oasis Rating: 2 – Skippable Detained Rating: 2 – Skippable Vox Sola Rating: 2 – Skippable Fallen Hero Rating: 2 – Skippable Desert Crossing Rating: 2 – Skippable Two Days and Two Nights Rating: 3 – Watch Shockwave, Part 1 Rating: 4 – Watch

Shockwave, Part 2 Rating: 3 – Watch Carbon Creek Rating: 3 – Watch Minefield Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Dead Stop Rating: 4 – Watch A Night in Sickbay Rating: 1 – Skip Marauders Rating: 3 – Watch The Seventh Rating: 2 – Skippable The Communicator Rating: 3 – Watch Singularity Rating: 1 – Skip Vanishing Point Rating: 1 – Skip Precious Cargo Rating: 1 – Skip The Catwalk Rating: 2 – Skippable Dawn Rating: 2 – Skippable Stigma Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Cease Fire Rating: 3 – Watch Future Tense Rating: 4 – Watch Canamar Rating: 3 – Watch The Crossing Rating: 2 – Skippable Judgment Rating: 4 – Watch Horizon Rating: 3 – Watch The Breach Rating: 3 – Watch Cogenitor Rating: 4 – Watch Regeneration Rating: 3 – Watch First Flight Rating: 3 – Watch Bounty Rating: 2 – Skippable The Expanse Rating: 4 – Watch

Season Three

The Xindi Rating: 3 – Watch Anomaly Rating: 3 – Watch Extinction Rating: 1 – Skip Rajiin Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Impulse Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Exile Rating: 3 – Watch The Shipment Rating: 3 – Watch Twilight Rating: 3 – Watch North Star Rating: 3 – Watch Similitude Rating: 2 – Skippable Carpenter Street Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Chosen Realm Rating: 3 – Watch Proving Ground Rating: 3 – Watch Stratagem Rating: 3 – Watch Harbinger Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Doctor’s Orders Rating: 2 – Skippable Hatchery Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Azati Prime Rating: 3 – Watch Damage Rating: 4 – Watch The Forgotten Rating: 3 – Watch E2 Rating: 3 – Watch The Council Rating: 3 – Watch Countdown Rating: 3 – Watch Zero Hour Rating: 3 – Watch

Season Four

Storm Front Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Storm Front, Part II Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Home Rating: 2 – Watch for continuity Borderland Rating: 3 – Watch Cold Station 12 Rating: 3 – Watch The Augments Rating: 3 – Watch The Forge Rating: 3 – Watch Awakening Rating: 3 – Watch Kir’Shara Rating: 3 – Watch Daedalus Rating: 2 – Skippable Observer Effect Rating: 3 – Watch Babel One   Rating: 3 – Watch United Rating: 3 – Watch The Aenar Rating: 3 – Watch Affliction Rating: 3 – Watch Divergence Rating: 3 – Watch Bound Rating: 3 – Watch In a Mirror, Darkly Rating: 3 – Watch In A Mirror, Darkly Part 2 Rating: 3 – Watch Demons Rating: 3 – Watch Terra Prime Rating: 3 – Watch These Are The Voyages… Rating: 0 – Do Not Watch.

Personal musings, Professional Updates, and Maybe (just maybe), Useful Information

• The Blob Opera Endures
• Star Trek’s Mission Log: 58 Years & Counting
• Them’s Fighting Films!
• Alternate Hollywoods
• Farscape at 25

A Viewing Guide for Star Trek: Enterprise

Back in September, I did a ranking of every episode of every Star Trek series .

But what if you haven’s seen all of the Star Trek series? And what if you’re all ready to binge-watch another series this year?

If you haven’t seen Enterprise , the Trek franchise’s first prequel series, you’re probably not alone. While I have found several people who consider it their favorite, anecdotally, it appears to be the least watched series outside of the original animated one.

And I understand. The first two seasons are tough going a lot of the time. The theme song never gets better (except for briefly in season 4). However, as with all Trek, Enterprise –by and large– ages pretty darn well and scratches some itches you didn’t know you have about Andorians, Vulcans, and the founding of the United Federation of Planets.

The following list cuts 44 of the 98 episodes out of the mix, giving you enough grounding with the characters in the first two seasons to better enjoy the increased continuity and worldbuilding of the final two seasons.

If you find you really are enjoying the series, you can always catch up on those missing episodes in the inevitable rewatch for completeness (I’m cutting some episodes I really like, but –if I’m being honest– aren’t necessary for a first watch).

Also, after hearing the opening theme song, feel free to turn down the volume or skip the intro entirely except for “In a Mirror, Darkly” in the fourth season (I love the visuals, I’ve tried and the song doesn’t work for me).

Skip most of it except:

• “Broken Bow” (Eps 1 & 2)
• “The Andorian Incident” (Ep 7)
• “Silent Enemy” (Ep 12)
• “Dear Doctor” (Ep 13)
• “Vox Sola” (Ep 22)
• “Shockwave, Pt. 1” (Ep 26)
• “Shockwave, Pt. 2” (Ep 1)
• “Carbon Creek” (Ep 2)
• “Minefield” (Ep 3)
• “Vanishing Point” (Ep 10)
• “The Breach” (Ep 21)
• “Cogenitor” (Ep 22)
• “The Expanse” (Ep 26)

Season Three

Watch most of it, except:

• “Extinction” (Ep 3)
• “Exile” (Ep 6)
• “Similitude” (Ep 10)
• “Doctor’s Orders” (Ep 16)

Season Four

• “Daedalus” (Ep 10)
• “These Are the Voyages…” (Ep 22)

As per the showrunner, the true series finale is “Terra Prime,” episode 21.

There you go! A Star Trek binge-fest that can easily fit into the rest of the year.

(Note: I did this one as a favor to someone who had meant to watch the series, but couldn’t get into it and have since been told by several people that they were in the same boat (or NX-class starship?). If people think I should do viewing guides for other series, let me know!)

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Episode list

Star trek: enterprise.

S2.E13 ∙ Dawn

S2.E14 ∙ Stigma

S2.E15 ∙ Cease Fire

S2.E16 ∙ Future Tense

S2.E17 ∙ Canamar

S2.E18 ∙ The Crossing

S2.E19 ∙ Judgment

S2.E20 ∙ Horizon

S2.E21 ∙ The Breach

S2.E22 ∙ Cogenitor

S2.E23 ∙ Regeneration

S2.E24 ∙ First Flight

S2.E25 ∙ Bounty

S2.E26 ∙ The Expanse

S3.E1 ∙ The Xindi

S3.E2 ∙ Anomaly

S3.E3 ∙ Extinction

S3.E4 ∙ Rajiin

S3.E5 ∙ Impulse

S3.E6 ∙ Exile

S3.E7 ∙ The Shipment

S3.E8 ∙ Twilight

S3.E9 ∙ North Star

S3.E10 ∙ Similitude

S3.E11 ∙ Carpenter Street

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Graeme McMillan

WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek: Enterprise

After more than a decade of television supremacy, Star Trek: Enterprise would prove to be the final frontier for Gene Roddenberry's space opera, at least where television was concerned, accidentally killing the franchise until J.J. Abrams hit the movie reboot button in 2009. Because of that, it's gained a reputation for being a pretty crappy Star Trek all things considered, and while it's certainly not up there with the highlights of Trek 's 49-year history, it's also not as bad as many people think.

A prequel to the original Star Trek , Enterprise let producers reset the franchise from the increasingly safe era of The Next Generation and Voyager , where technology could be relied upon to save the day and humanity had evolved past petty hatred and things that could provide easy drama. By showing the origins of Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets, the logic went, the series could delight long-time fans while also drawing in new viewers... except that the reality proved to be almost entirely the opposite.

A decade since the show's cancelation, it's time to revisit Enterprise , and see how it stands up to the test of time (and space).

Number of Seasons: 4 (98 episodes)

Time Requirements: If you push it, you could manage to get through the entire series in just under two months. (Two episodes a night during the week, three per day on the weekends.) There are times when it'll seem difficult to push through, but we have faith in you.

Where to Get Your Fix: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, CBS.com

Best Character to Follow: Although there are certainly more likable characters in the show—step forward, Travis Mayweather (Anthony Montgomery) and Hoshi Sato (Linda Park)—the best characters to follow are probably Scott Bakula's Captain Jonathan Archer and Connor Trineer's engineer, the resident fake McCoy, Trip Tucker. They are, after all, characters who get something resembling development throughout the entire series, as opposed to just an episode of spotlight every now and again. (Jolene Blalock's T'Pol also falls into that category, but also unfortunately alternated between "generic Vulcan" and "hot lady" in terms of her treatment across the show's run, making her a frustrating character to focus on at times.)

Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:

There's no real way of avoiding it: The first two seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise —officially titled just Enterprise , the Star Trek didn't show up in the title until the third season—are uneven at best, and the third is... well, it depends how you feel about what was intended to be a new direction for the show, shall we say. This leaves the series feeling pretty skippable in large part until the show's fourth and final year, where things got a lot better very quickly. But if you're looking for specific episodes to avoid, here are some you can definitely do without.

Season 1: Episode 18, "Rogue Planet" What if Captain Archer fell in love with a mysterious woman on an alien planet, only to discover that she's actually a giant snail? Oh, sorry: We've spoiled the twist in the tale of this suitably sluggish, slow episode that might just make you want to climb into a shell and never come out.

David Kushner

Andy Greenberg

David Gilbert

Emily Mullin

Season 1: Episode 23, "Two Days and Two Nights" Every single time any Star Trek series broached the idea of their crews grabbing some rest and relaxation, things threatened to get unwatchable, and never more so than this episode, which sees the Enterprise crew hit pleasure planet Risa only to be seduced by "exotic" aliens in such a manner that makes you wonder if the cast were as embarrassed speaking the dialogue as we are listening to it.

Season 2: Episode 26, "The Expanse" A controversial suggestion for some fans, "The Expanse" was obviously the Enterprise writers' response to the political fallout of 9/11 (the episode aired May 2003), and temporarily retooled the series as something more aggressive, with the Enterprise given bigger weapons and a new group of soldiers as they respond to a massive alien attack that killed millions by setting out to stop war at any cost possible. There are some interesting ideas in the season that follows—not least of which is the idea of a cold war between time travelers, which involves different factions playing with history for their own ends—but in many important ways, it doesn't feel true to the ideals of Star Trek . Your mileage, as they say, may vary.

Season 4: Episode 22, "These Are the Voyages..." In general, Star Trek series nail their final episodes, but *Enterprise'*s final hour is so off-base that it's gained a reputation amongst fans for being one of the franchise's worst episodes overall, with later spin-off novels not only undoing one of the more dramatic plot twists of the story, but also making fun of the nonsensical nature of the episode overall. An embarrassing, ignoble end for a show that, while not perfect, deserved better.

Seasons/Episodes You Can't Skip:

The shorthand version of what Enterprise to watch if you're pressed for time is, "Season 4." Sure, it starts with a surreal resolution of the previous season's storyline (hello, space Nazis!), but everything that follows all the way up until the terrible final episode is golden. If you're looking to take a more leisurely stroll through the series, however, watch out for these episodes.

Season 1: Episodes 1 and 2, "Broken Bow" The pilot for the show is as messy as the series' first couple of years, but there remains something charming about the uncertainty with which the crew of the first Enterprise reacts to their looming mission, before events—and the episode's plot—overwhelm them. Plus, finally we get translation problems with aliens. It'd only taken us 30-something years!

Season 1: Episode 7, "The Andorian Incident" Talking about showing things that fans had long wanted to see: This is the episode that finally put subtext into text—yes, Vulcans really are dicks. In fact, they're hateful, xenophobic dicks, although their hatred for the Andorians isn't entirely off-base, as the audience quickly learns. But nonetheless, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" Vulcans, these are not, and they're all the more fun for it.

Season 2: Episode 2, "Carbon Creek" The idea of taking a regular cast member and placing them in more-or-less contemporary Earth had become a Star Trek tradition by the time this episode rolled around, but Jolene Blalock acquits herself admirably, playing an ancestor of T'Pol in 1950s America. Sure, there's a plot explaining why they're there, but that's not what anyone is watching for. We just want the culture clash hijinks.

Season 3: Episode 10, "Similitude" The ethics of cloning are explored in a surprisingly subtle way in this episode in which a second Trip is "grown" to act as, essentially, an organ farm for the original version. Sounds a little creepy? Well, you're not alone in thinking so, which is where the episode's heart comes from. OK, that and the fact that the clone has all of Trip's memories and emotions, but not necessarily the social knowledge in how to deal with them.

Season 3: Episode 21, "E2" Thanks to the "temporal cold war," the crew encounters a version of the ship that had been sent back in time more than a century, and is now populated by their own descendants. Can this other Enterprise help prevent the time traveling that created them in the first place? If Back to the Future made your head hurt, this episode could be fatal, and we mean that as a compliment.

Season 4: Episode 3, "Home" What happens after Earth, humanity, the universe, and the timeline as we know it has been saved? If you're the crew of the Enterprise , you get to go home and find out how everyone else has been doing in your absence. After the previous year's high drama, this episode of downtime and after-effects is wonderfully fulfilling, humanistic, and feels very much like a course correction from where the show had been heading up to this point. Just great stuff.

Season 4: Episodes 4, 5, and 6, "Borderland," "Cold Station 12," and "The Augments" Tying together various threads in Star Trek mythology, including Khan (as in The Wrath of ) and *The Next Generation'*s Data, with Brent Spiner reappearing to play the ancestor of Data's creator, who also happens to be a fan of genetic experimentation and the closest thing Star Trek ever got to a mad scientist. You can tell that he's loving the role, and the result is something pulpy, fun, and filled with Trek Easter eggs for the fanbase.

Season 4: Episodes 18 and 19, "In A Mirror, Darkly" Parts 1 and 2 And here's another Easter egg for the faithful: a two-parter set in the "mirror universe" of the original series' "Mirror, Mirror," and relishing the campy drama that comes along with the setting. For the continuity-minded, there are excerpts from Star Trek: First Contact to explain where the mirror universe branched off from the regular Star Trek timeline, while the rest of us can enjoy the 1960s costumes and the suitably different opening titles.

Season 4: Episodes 20 and 21, "Demons" and "Terra Prime" Forget about the horrible final episode of the series (no, really, forget about it): This two-parter that immediately preceded it offers a far better conclusion to everything that came before, as discussions about the formation of what will eventually become the United Federation of Planets are disrupted by a xenophobic faction that wants to rid Earth of all aliens. What's that, you say, unsubtle political commentary? You betcha, and it's wonderful.

Why You Should Binge:

Because, thanks to the 2009 movie, Star Trek: Enterprise is now the only television series that is still canon. (No, really; Archer even gets referenced in the dialogue of the first one, as does his dog. Watch the Scotty scenes again.) Also, as rough as the series can be at times, there is something occasionally thrilling about seeing everyone involved try and retro-engineer the Star Trek that the audience knows and loves—and watching Enterprise in binge-mode is probably the best way to do it, as you see the show work its way backwards in terms of influence; it starts off in the mode of Star Trek: Voyager , but by the final (and best) season, there's a lot more of the original series in there. A forgotten classic? That might be going a little too far, but Enterprise is certainly not as bad as common wisdom remembers it to be.

Best Scene—"Let's Go" There are many fine moments throughout the 98 episodes of Enterprise , but nothing quite manages the moment in the pilot where the ship leaves the security of space dock for the first time. It's a moment filled with anticipation for what's to follow, which only feels fitting.

And, hey, it could be worse:

Much, much worse.

The Takeaway: In a way, Enterprise mirrors the earliest years of Earth's interplanetary exercise: an awkward start, some false moves in there, but things get closer to plain sailing as time goes on. Admittedly, the cancellation of the show four years in kind of ruins that metaphor a little bit, but work with us here. (And the less said about the coda in the finale, the better.)

If You Liked Star Trek: Enterprise You'll Love: If nothing else, most of the Trek canon. Probably some Battlestar Galactica , too.

Jennifer M. Wood

Angela Watercutter

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'Shuttlepod One' and 7 more great 'Star Trek: Enterprise' episodes you should watch

Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the airing of "Shuttlepod One" with the best  Star Trek: Enterprise  episodes. 

It’s hard to believe that Star Trek: Enterprise premiered more than 20 years ago, but it’s true! The show debuted on the now-defunct UPN on Sept. 26, 2001 and took place in the 22nd century — the early days of Starfleet and 100 years before Captain James T. Kirk commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise.  

On Enterprise the show, Earth’s first starship — the U.S.S. Enterprise NX-01 — is captained by Jonathan Archer ( Scott Bakula ). He and his crew have several adventures in the unknowns of space as Starfleet and Earth go through the growing pains of becoming an intergalactic player. 

One of the most memorable episodes from the show’s four seasons is “ Shuttlepod One ,” a story that spends the majority of its time on a malfunctioning shuttlecraft with Commander Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and Lieutenant Reed (Dominic Keating), who think that the Enterprise has been destroyed and that they’re stuck puttering through space until their oxygen runs out and they die. “Shuttlepod One” gives us some intimate moments with Tucker and Reed, and it also emphasizes the hard reality of living in space in the early days of Starfleet. It’s also been recognized as one of the most memorable episodes of the entire Star Trek franchise. 

This episode — the sixteenth episode from the show’s first season — turns 20 years old today, and to celebrate the occasion, here are seven more of Enterprise 's finest hours that you should revisit or check out for the first time. 

“Broken Bow” (Season 1)

“Broken Bow” is the two-part pilot for Star Trek: Enterprise and sets the stage for the entire series. In it, a Klingon named Klaang crash lands in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Archer, who is just about to helm the first Enterprise convinces the Vulcans to let him and his newly-formed crew take Klaang to Qo’noS, the Klingon homeworld. Things go awry, as things often do in Star Trek , but Archer ultimately completes his mission. The newly-formed Starfleet then tells him to keep exploring, and Archer does for another four seasons. 

“The Andorian Incident” (Season 1)

“The Andorian Incident”, the first season’s seventh episode, is one of the most significant of the series. In it, the Enterprise heads to a 3,000-old Vulcan monastery and are surprised to find that it is full of armed Andorians. The Andorians believe that the monastery is hiding surveillance tech that spies on them, and they ultimately find out that they’re right. The deception is one that escalates the tensions between the Andorians and the Vulcans, a dynamic that has ripples throughout the Star Trek franchise. 

“Silent Enemy” (Season 1)

Season 1’s harrowing and tense twelfth episode sees the Enterprise attacked by an unknown starship home to a dangerous alien species never before encountered. Soon, these aliens invade Enterprise's dark corridors and submit the crew to bafflingly aggressive mini-hells, before disappearing into the vastness of space. These would-be villains are never seen again, which is too bad. Because they made quite the impression in "Silent Enemy" and could have been worthwhile threats for Archer to combat. 

“Dead Stop” (Season 2)

“Dead Stop,” the fourth installment in Season 2, sees the Enterprise nursing its wounds after being caught in a minefield in the previous episode, as Enterprise  took advantage of serialized storytelling to tell this sometimes scary, always thrilling tale. When Captain Archer issues a distress call, he and his crew must dock the ship at an autonomous repair station in the vicinity. The repair station, however, isn't as benignly helpful as it wants you to think it is. The crew ultimately realizes that the station kidnaps sentient beings and uses their brains to up its processing power. “Dead Stop” is a frightening Star Trek episode, with a Matrix -esque premise that is pushed to some suspenseful and chilling conclusions — especially with that ominous last shot. It’s worth watching for the creepiness factor alone. 

“Judgment” (Season 2)

“Judgment” is an Enterprise episode that focuses on a courtroom trial serving as a pseudo-sequel to Star Trek VI 's Klingon "show trial" where Kirk and McCoy took the stand following the assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon. In this case, Archer is the defendant in a Klingon tribunal, where he’s been accused of attacking a Klingon spaceship and aiding rebels of the Klingon Empire. The episode comes in the backhalf of the second season and explores what happens when honor and ethics fall to the wayside in the thirst for victory. It also includes a wonderful performance by guest star J.G. Hertzler (from DS9  fame) as Archer’s Klingon counsel. 

“Regeneration” (Season 2)

“Regeneration” brings the Borg once again to the Star Trek universe. In this exciting second season episode, the Borg and their nanoprobes are found in a crashed ship on Earth, in the Arctic Circle, and Archer and the Enterprise are tasked to figure out what the heck is going on. The Borg begin assimilating, as Borg are wont to do, and Archer ultimately destroys their ship and those who had been assimilated. The episode ends on a very ominous note, with the Borg transmitting Earth’s coordinates out to the Delta Quadrant, where it will ultimately arrive 200 years in the future.  

“Impulse” (Season 3)

“Impulse” is another creepy Enterprise episode where Archer and his crew attempt to rescue a Vulcan ship in distress and find its crew acting like a bunch of killer zombies. The setup is a classic haunted ship scenario, with sub-Commander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) especially dealing with the psychological aftermath as she too begins to become affected like all of the other Vulcans on this derelict vessel. It is, in a few words, a messed up episode, and one that will stick with you long after you watch it. 

All four seasons of  Star Trek: Enterprise are available on Paramount+.   

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Star Trek: Enterprise – Episode guides complete with ratings and reviews in brief

The clunkiest of the Star Trek series nevertheless has several episodes well worth a watch. In fact, “Broken Bow”, the two-part premiere episode, gets things going off to a great start before the almost-obligatory blah feeling of an ST season one. Season three is devoted to a single story arc, and by season four, higher-quality stories are the order of the day – until that final episode.

Star Trek: Enterprise – The seasons, the key episodes

Season 1 – After starting with the excellent “Broken Bow”, quite possibly the strongest of any Star Trek series opener, most season one scripts are quite thin of plot and/or highly derivative. Throughout season 1 are numerous “spooky abandoned spacecraft” and “Vulcans are weird” storylines with scripts here and there standing out due only to character introductions. Among these we may include “The Andorian Incident” (episode #7), which reintroduces the Andorian (you know, the blue dudes with antennae) and specifically the hot-headed Tholos, who would become an ally of the Enterprise. “Cold Front” debuts the time-traveling character Daniels, who would return repeatedly to the show in its four seasons.

Season 2 of Enterprise is unfortunately much of the same as the debut year, again starting strong and petering out rapidly. “Carbon Creek” (#2) is an absolutely outstanding story about Vulcans stranded in 1950s America and is probably the single best Enterprise episode. First contact with the Romulans is depicted in “Minefield” (#3), and the single most divisive episode in Star Trek history is certainly “A Night in Sickbay” (#5). (For the record, Star Trek Guide loves that one.)

Season 3 – In response to steadily falling ratings, Berman & Braga decided to get topical and to try something different for season 3. The pair closed out season 2 with part one of “The Expanse,” which would trigger the single storyline of season 3, roughly Earth vs. the Xindi, a group of five intelligent species that preposterously evolved on the same planet. Borrowing an idea from Starship Troopers, the Xindi launch a long-range attack on the Americas – and also a 28-episode metaphor for 21sst-century terrorism – because “Temporal Cold War.”

Season 4 – The final episode of season 3 and first two of season 4 compose the conclusion of the Temporal Cold War storyline in wild fashion; after this, Enterprise season 4 gets to work expanding one minutiae that only the most devoted Trekkie would care about: The origins of Khaaaaaaaaan (“The Augements,” #6, and hey, at least this one’s got Brent Spiner in it!); the reason for the 23rd-century Klingons’ lack of bumpy foreheads, thus blowing away Worf’s elegant explanation on Deep Space Nine (“Affliction”/”Divergence”, #s 15-16); Orion slave girls (“Bound”, #17); and one more trip into the mirror universe (“In a Mirror Darkly”, #s 17-18) with the most amazing cold open in Star Trek history, no joke.

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10 best episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, ranked

Every Star Trek series is someone’s favorite ( Star Trek: The Animated Series stans, we see you), but when it comes to the 18-year Golden Age of Trek between 1987 and 2005, the prequel series Enterprise is easily the least beloved. Airing on UPN for an abbreviated four-season run, Enterprise was meant to shake things up after three consecutive series set in the late 24th century.

10. Babel One/United/The Aenar (season 4, episodes 12, 13, & 14)

9. shuttlepod one (season 1, episode 16), 8. zero hour (season 3, episode 24), 7. carbon creek (season 2, episode 2), 6. first flight (season 2, episode 24), 5. demons/terra prime (season 4, episodes 20 & 21), 4. damage (season 3, episode 19), 3. in a mirror, darkly, parts i & ii (season 4, episodes 18 & 19), 2. twilight (season 3, episode 8), 1. similitude (season 3, episode 10).

Imagined as a sort of origin story for Star Trek in the style of The Right Stuff , creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted to capture the danger and excitement of United Earth’s early interstellar space program, even planning to spend the entire first season on Earth preparing for the launch of Starfleet’s very first Starship Enterprise. The network, however, had other ideas, insisting that Berman and Braga not meddle with the consistently successful Star Trek formula. Thus, despite taking place two centuries earlier, Enterprise became, essentially, “ more Voyager ,” which in turn had been “ more Next Generation ,” a once-great sci-fi procedural that was nearly a decade past its peak.

That’s not to say that the series didn’t improve throughout its four-season run. After two years of struggling to justify the show’s very existence, Berman and Braga swung for the fences with a radically different third season that reinvented Enterprise (now renamed Star Trek: Enterprise ) as a grim and gritty serialized drama unpacking the aftermath of a 9/11-scale attack on Earth. While immediately more compelling, the revamp failed to boost the show’s sagging ratings, and it was reworked yet again the following year, and leaned further into the “prequel to Star Trek ” angle under new showrunner Manny Coto. This, many fans will argue, is where Enterprise finally found its legs, but it was too little and too late to prevent its cancellation. Still, each iteration of the troubled spinoff had its highlights and our list of the 10 strongest Enterprise episodes is spread fairly evenly throughout the run of the show.

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Warning: This article contains spoilers for each listed episode.

After struggling to establish an identity for three seasons, the final season of Enterprise focused on setting the groundwork for important moments in the franchise’s fictional history. This three-parter marks the first team-up between all four of the worlds that will one day found the United Federation of Planets: Andoria, Earth, Tellar Prime, and Vulcan, as they’re pitted against each other by a mysterious enemy. That enemy, naturally, turns out to be the Romulans, the shady alien empire that Earth and its allies are destined to go to war with in the years to come. The Babel One trilogy promises that the story of this momentous conflict is forthcoming, and that the alliance born in this episode will be key in winning the day. Alas, the series was canceled before it could make good on this promise, but it’s still an entertaining chapter in the history of the franchise.

Of course, what really lands the Babel One trilogy on our list is that it’s a three-hour story featuring the show’s best character, the Andorian Commander Shran (recurring guest star Jeffrey Combs). You heard us — not best guest character, best character , hands down. Shran is a prickly, but noble warrior obsessed with repaying his debts. He’s a little paranoid, but he’s also fairly reasonable and trustworthy, particularly once you’ve won his respect. He might not have seemed like such a treat if he’d been on the show every week, but this story is a welcome triple dose of our favorite Andorian.

The early days of Enterprise are thoroughly unspectacular, as its bland characters and insufficiently fresh setting struggle in comparison to the shows that preceded it. Shuttlepod One is a relatively bright spot in the first season and a showcase for two characters that helped endear them to audiences for the remainder of the series. In this episode, chipper chief engineer Charles “Trip” Tucker III (Connor Trinneer) and strait-laced armory officer Malcolm Reed (Anthony Keating) are trapped in a Shuttlepod together and, after happening upon some ominous wreckage, believe themselves to be the sole survivors of the Enterprise crew. The story is about how these two very different people each handle the prospect of death and the slim possibility of survival.

It’s fairly heavy-handed, casting Reed as a pessimist despite being the only one of the pair to accurately assess the gravity of their predicament, but it’s really about the birth of a friendship, one that would become a staple of the rest of the series. Behind the scenes, Trineer and Keating would remain buddies for decades, often appearing together at conventions and launching their own podcast in 2022, called The Shuttlepod Show .

Enterprise wasn’t the first Star Trek series to attempt a long, serialized story arc — Deep Space Nine ’s Dominion War played out over the course of years — but it was the first in the franchise to fully commit to the modern model of telling a single story over the course of an entire season. Season 3’s Xindi arc gave Enterprise a new prime directive, to find and destroy a planet-killing weapon before it could be unleashed on Earth. And, when you ask an audience to commit to an epic story that unfolds over a period of months, whether or not that audience feels satisfied with that commitment rides on the success of its finale.

Zero Hour is big blockbuster Trek on television, an hourlong action finale for what is still the longest unbroken story arc in the canon. It ties together threads that had been left dangling throughout the season and brings them all together for a rousing adventure with its fair share of fist-pumping moments. (It’s always a delight to see Combs’ Shran, but his appearance here gets a hearty “Hell, yeah!” out of us every time.) While its tacked-on twist ending takes a bit of the air out of the balloon (the writers simply needed a head-scratching cliffhanger to try and avoid cancellation), it’s still a satisfying ending to one of the franchise’s riskiest stories.

If you’ve been following our entire series of Star Trek countdowns , then you know that we were bound to include one of the really silly ones on this list. Carbon Creek is a divisive episode that fudges with the franchise’s established history of alien contact for the sake of a goofy, but heartfelt story that speaks to the essence of what Trek is all about. Here, Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) regales Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and Trip with a tall tale about one of her ancestors (also Blalock) becoming stranded in Pennsylvania in 1957, along with a small crew of Vulcan scientists. While they await rescue, the Vulcans are forced to blend in with the human population and engage in some fish-out-of-water comedy.

As with a number of our other picks, Carbon Creek stands out from the crowd for being notably different from the “planet of the week” stories that had gotten stale before Enterprise even debuted. In addition to being a period piece focused on a new set of characters, it’s also an inversion of the expected. Instead of being a story about humans arriving at a new world and seeing their humanity reflected back at them, it’s a story about Vulcans coming to our world, which is new to them and makes them ponder what it is to be Vulcan . This probably makes the episode sound more high-minded than it is, but Carbon Creek remains fun light entertainment that, unlike a lot of early Enterprise episodes, will probably not bore you.

Berman and Braga’s original concept for Enterprise was that it would recapture the energy and excitement of the 1960s Space Race by framing its early Starfleet crew as pioneers and trailblazers in the new field of interstellar travel. This version was tossed in favor of a more familiar kind of Star Trek, but we do get one brief glimpse at the series that might have been in the show’s 50th episode, First Flight . This story flashes back to Archer’s early days as a Starfleet test pilot, long before the Enterprise was constructed. Back then, the mission of Starfleet wasn’t to explore strange new worlds — it was to reach Warp 3 without exploding, and Archer had to compete with an array of other pilots just for the privilege of possibly blowing up. First Flight tells the story of Archer’s rivalry with fellow officer A.G. Robinson (guest star Keith Carradine), and how their fight to be the fastest human in history nearly tanked — but ultimately saved — the entire space program.

Though not exactly groundbreaking television, First Flight earns a place on our list as an example of Enterprise ’s unfulfilled potential. As much as this series got more in line with fans’ expectations in the later seasons, a Star Trek series with this setting and tone would have been something truly new for the franchise, a prequel with an identity all its own. Until the franchise inevitably cycles back around to the 22nd century, we’ll have to settle for this one episode.

Ask any Trekkie and they’ll tell you straight: The series finale of Enterprise is bad . These Are The Voyages , which takes place years after the rest of the series, but is actually a holodeck simulation being played centuries after the rest of the series, is a total mess and an awful way for the show to end. The finale feels all the more anticlimactic since the previous story, the conclusion of which aired that very same night as the finale, actually offers a fairly satisfying conclusion. The two-part Demons/Terra Prime brings the Enterprise back home to preside over an historic agreement between worlds that will someday lead to the birth of the United Federation of Planets. However, these proceedings are jeopardized by a terrorist group called Terra Prime, which threatens to destroy Starfleet Command unless all extraterrestrials leave Earth. Escalating the stakes is the revelation that Terra Prime has created an infant human/Vulcan hybrid to serve as an example of their “corrupted” future, and she’s the genetic daughter of T’Pol and Trip.

Lending an air of gravitas to the story is guest star Peter “RoboCop” Weller as terrorist leader John Frederick Paxton, who fancies himself the savior of the human race. Paxton and Terra Prime represent the very real madness of xenophobia, drawing one-to-one comparisons with the logic and motives of white supremacists who view cultural or genetic cross-pollination with other races as an attack on their identity. Star Trek, of course, preaches the opposite philosophy, that every group is stronger when they embrace each other’s differences and work together as one. Demons and Terra Prime have the crew of Archer’s Enterprise fighting for the very ideals behind Star Trek at a juncture in history where they are in direct jeopardy. It’s a key turning point in the evolution of humanity from the new kids on the galactic block to a leader in the pursuit of interstellar peace and prosperity. The fact that the stakes are personified in Trip and T’Pol’s fragile baby is just icing on the cake.

The third season of Enterprise delivers some of the most “post-9/11” television you’ll ever see. Debuting in 2003 while 24 was at its peak, the Xindi arc dealt with the impact that a deadly surprise attack can have on a society that views itself as untouchable. Like America after the Cold War, the United Earth of the 22nd century thinks of themselves as existing at “the end of history,” as if trouble and strife are behind them. They’re the good guys, and they’ve won. Suddenly, their illusion of primacy is shattered, and they don’t know how to handle the prospect of another tragedy. However, where in real life the 9/11 attacks did not turn out to be a precursor to a new era of dramatic foreign terrorist activity on U.S. soil (as we were all told to expect by the news of the day), the firing of a power weapon at Earth by the mysterious Xindi, is, in fact, only a test for a much larger attack that would destroy the planet outright. Thus, Earth dispatches its only capable starship, Enterprise, into a dangerous area of space to locate and destroy the Xindi’s weapon of mass destruction before it can be completed, by any means necessary.

So, when Enterprise is badly damaged in a skirmish with Xindi forces, Archer is forced to abandon his “evolved” moral code and make terrible choices to complete his urgent mission. A Good Samaritan answers their distress call and offers assistance, but what Enterprise really needs is a critical set of parts that the friendly vessel also needs to survive. The overall ethics of Star Trek have always maintained that you can’t save humankind by sacrificing your own humanity, and nearly always constructs stories to validate that point of view. This time, Archer is given no way out. At the same time, Commander T’Pol is facing a totally different internal struggle, as the truth about her abuse of the psychoactive substance Trellium-D finally comes to light. Blalock, of whom very little is asked in the first two seasons apart from wearing tight outfits and being leered at by the camera, outshines the entire cast with her performance in this intense and demanding episode.

That In a Mirror, Darkly is many fans’ favorite Enterprise episode is about as damning a criticism one could make about the series. The two-parter is set in entirely the Mirror Universe, the topsy-turvy parallel timeline in which the Enterprise serves the fascist, xenophobic Terran Empire, and thus features none of the show’s regular characters. Instead, the cast gets to ham it up by portraying their dastardly counterparts who, while certainly over the top, are more fun and more interesting than their Prime Universe counterparts. Here, a disgruntled Archer leads a coup against stubborn Captain Forrest (frequent guest star Vaughn Armstrong), who’s an Admiral in the Prime Universe, and takes the ISS Enterprise into enemy territory to seize a powerful ship from an alternate future — the Constitution-Class USS Defiant from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode   The Tholian Web .

This, of course, is why the episode is so beloved — it’s second part is a smorgasbord of nostalgia, as the Enterprise cast wanders a perfect reproduction of the 1960s Star Trek set, dons old-school uniforms, and faces classic Trek villains the Tholian and the Gorn, which are redesigned using contemporary CGI. Since the story is outside of the normal continuity, anything can and does happen, and it’s a wild ride. Practically none of this episode’s success has anything to do with the series from which it’s sprung, but it’s a charmingly bonkers 90 minutes of television that has, against all odds, actually had canonical relevance for episodes of Star Trek: Discovery that were produced 15 years later.

Any sci-fi show with high stakes can benefit from a “worst-case scenario” time travel episode. Nothing clarifies the importance of a hero’s mission more than seeing for themselves exactly what will happen if they fail. And like any story set in an alternate future, there’s the added excitement of seeing events that would never be allowed to happen in an episode that “counts.” Take, for instance, Twilight , which opens with a disoriented Archer fighting his way to the bridge of the Enterprise just in time to watch Earth get blasted into bits. After this shocking teaser, we learn that Archer has sustained an injury that prevents him from forming new long-term memories, and that as a result, the Enterprise’s mission to destroy the Xindi superweapon fails and most of humanity is killed. Twelve years later, a method is discovered to undo Archer’s accident, possibly saving Earth in the process, and the scattered Enterprise crew gathers for one last mission for all the marbles.

The scenario is intriguing in itself, as are the glimpses into the possible futures of the rest of the regular characters, but the heart of the episode is the relationship between the ailing Archer and T’Pol, who has remained by his side throughout his illness. By this point in the series, the romance between T’Pol and Trip Tucker was already in motion, but this alternate timeline shows a very different sort of bond developing between T’Pol and her former captain, one which is, perhaps, not particularly healthy. Blalock’s performance as this future T’Pol (one of two she would portray that season) is quietly compelling, and an early indicator of how much her character would evolve over the course of the Xindi arc.

At face value, Similitude seems like a retread of a dilemma faced by the Star Trek: Voyager crew in the episode Tuvix . Strange circumstances have led to the creation of a new life form, and the only way to save a familiar member of the crew is to take his life. The new life form, naturally, doesn’t want to die, but the rules of television demand that everything go back to normal at the end of 45 minutes. Similitude retains everything about that story that worked in Tuvix , while making it more interesting at every step. Here, chief engineer Trip Tucker is mortally wounded in an accident, and the only way to save him is to grow a rapidly aging clone of him and harvest its brain tissue. Even though this procedure is supposed to be nonlethal, Archer and Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) would ordinarily balk at performing such a morally dubious experiment.

However, this story takes place halfway through the Xindi arc, and the Enterprise is the only hope of saving the Earth from total destruction. Earth needs Enterprise, Enterprise needs Trip, and Trip needs his clone’s brain tissue, so Archer has no choice. Worse, the crew has to watch this clone, who they name “Sim,” grow up over the course of weeks, gradually inheriting the memories of his donor. When he reaches the age at which he’s supposed to donate his brain tissue, Phlox determines that the transplant to save Trip will be fatal to Sim.

Similitude places our Starfleet heroes in an impossible situation and explores it from several practical and emotional angles. There’s Archer buckling under the pressure of his daunting mission, becoming ever more willing to play the villain so long as it serves his mission. There’s T’Pol’s confusion over her romantic feelings for Trip, versus Sim’s professed love for her. There’s Phlox, a family man, raising a little boy in his sickbay only to be asked to sacrifice him by his own hand. And, finally, there’s Sim himself, an innocent kid who is accumulating two contradictory sets of memories as he grows up and struggling with an identity crisis and a resentment toward the man he was created to save, who is also him .

The script, performances, and production all make the most of the episode’s concept, resulting in a gut-wrenchingly emotional hour of television. It’s no wonder that Coto, this episode’s writer, would be handed the keys to the series for the following season, and why so many fans wish he’d gotten the chance to see it through for a few more years.

Stream all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise on Paramount+ .

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The 2024 Academy Awards ceremony is just around the corner; chances are, you've seen at least some of the nominees for Best Picture. Barbie and Oppenheimer, the two movies that defined 2023, have been seen by everyone at this point, but what about Killers of the Flower Moon? The Holdovers? Maybe Past Lives? How popular are these movies, and does it help or hurt their chances of winning the big prize?

In determining the popularity of this year's crop of Best Picture nominees, I looked past social media mentions, YouTube views, and critic scores and used the one metric that matters to the entertainment industry: money. Using their total worldwide grosses as of February 27, I rank each Best Picture nominee from least to most popular. Unlike an M. Night Shyamalan movie, you will not be surprised at the ending.

The biggest and brightest stars in the film industry convene under one roof once a year at the Oscars. Also known as the Academy Awards, the Oscars are a joyous celebration of the year in film, as the best actors, directors, screenwriters, and below-the-line talent will be honored at the ceremony. It's the final ceremony of awards season, so expect all the attendees to wear their best outfits on the red carpet.

For those watching at home, the Oscars are a must-see television event. Memorable acceptance speeches have a way of stealing the show. Look no further than the 1998s, when Matt Damon and Ben Affleck shouted during their acceptance speech because they could not contain their happiness. Feel-good stories, like CODA winning Best Picture, always have a way of winning over the audience. You truly never know what will happen on a live television show. Just ask Will Smith and Chris Rock.

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the streaming revolution and everything that it's wrought. Still, one undeniable benefit of all these streaming services is that, in addition to more American content, we also get more stuff from other countries.

Not all of that stuff is great, of course, but entire new fandoms have emerged in part through American exposure to great TV and movies from all over the world. That may be true when it comes to Korean dramas, which have become incredibly popular in recent years. Here are 10 of the best Korean dramas streaming now on Netflix and Hulu that are definitely worth checking out. The Silent Sea (2021-) The Silent Sea | Official Trailer | Netflix

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The Best Star Trek: Enterprise Episodes

List of the best Star Trek : Enterprise episodes, as voted on by other fans of the series. In case you're not a Trekkie, Enterprise is set a century before the original Stark Trek series. With so many memorable episodes of the show, it's hard to trust just one person's opinion of what the top Star Trek: Enterprise episodes of all time are.

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These are the shows that you definitely should be watching, along with a few that you should avoid.

From Discovery to Picard to Lower Decks , Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds , there's a lot of New Star Trek to love.

Seven years ago, in 2017, after a 12-year absence, the Star Trek franchise returned to TV. On Sept. 24, 2017, the two-episode debut of Star Trek: Discovery was risky, bold, and, up until it dropped, shrouded in secrecy and more than a little bit of behind-the-scenes drama.

But, the Star Trek franchise survived this rocky start. After all, The Next Generation had several different writing staffs and production teams until it finally stabilized around 1990. And of course, The Original Series had its fair share of big production pivots across its three seasons. Radical change is built into the DNA of all Star Trek, though for some haters, the “NuTrek” that began with Discovery wasn’t what they wanted. Maybe it was the paywall on CBS All-Access. Maybe it was those all-blue uniforms in the first two seasons of Discovery . Or it was a million other, totally unfair complaints trolls had against the new Trek regime under Alex Kurtzman.

But, now, we’re nearly a decade into this brave (and strange) new world of Star Trek on TV. And, even for the most stubborn Trekkie, there are, in fact, episodes of so-called “NuTrek” that can convert a hater into a lover.

With representatives from every single new series, here are 10 episodes from the new era of Star Trek, all of which are just as good as great episodes from the classic eras that came before. Very mild spoilers ahead.

Lower Decks Season 4, Episode 2: “I Have No Bones, Yet I Must Flee”

The Moospy is coming!

With a title liberally stolen from Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” the sci-fi deep-cuts in this brilliant Lower Decks romp are never-ending. When the USS Cerritos encounters an alien zoo (classic!), the most deadly creature may also be the cutest.

Brilliantly, this Lower Decks takes a common Trek trope about misunderstood monsters and flips it on its head. The most dangerous creatures in this episode aren’t the aliens, but instead, well, you can guess.

This Lower Decks episode is also essential because it introduced the aforementioned bone-sucking (but otherwise adorable ) alien monster known as the Moopsy. Forget facehuggers from Alien. Moopsy will destroy all of them.

Prodigy Season 1, Episode 13: “All the World’s a Stage”

The kids of Prodigy discover the shuttlecraft Galileo from the classic USS Enterprise .

Can Star Trek do a version of Galaxy Quest ? The closest proof that the answer is yes, exists in the form of this extremely charming episode of Prodigy .

In “All the World's a Stage,” the kids of the USS Protostar roll up on the planet in which the inhabitants are all pretty much cosplaying as members of Starfleet from The Original Series . But, something has been lost in translation, because these folks call themselves “Enderprizians,” and refer to Starfleet as “Star Flight.”

Eventually, we learn that Ensign Garrovick, a redshirt Kirk saved in the episode “Obsession,” crashed a shuttle on this planet over a century prior. The Protostar tweens have to band together with these in-universe TOS fans to save the planet, and themselves. It’s a smart cross-generational story that sends a love letter to 1960s Trek fandom, while telling a great story that non-Trekkie kids can love, too.

Discovery Season 2, Episode 14: “Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2”

Spock gets ready to send his sister Michael where no Trek time traveler has gone before.

With Discovery Season 5 taking place roughly in the year 3191, it’s hard to remember that the first two seasons happened in the 2250s. While Season 1 alternated between the depression of the Klingon War and the bleakness of the Mirror Universe, Season 2 was the moment in which Discovery actively moved closer to the ethos of The Original Series , with a dash of J.J. Abrams-reboot zest.

While the universe-destroying killer AI called “Control” feels like a rough draft of several other Trek villains, the emotional core of Discovery Season 2 — mostly focused on Spock and Burnham — truly delivers in this epic finale. When the classic USS Enterprise has to team up with the USS Discovery , the sensibilities of various Star Trek aesthetics collide. This was the moment when Discovery jumped into a new future to reboot itself for Season 3, and the moment that Discovery also created what became the proto-pilot episode for Strange New Worlds .

Picard Season 3, Episode 6: “The Bounty”

All your favorite characters await the arrival of even more of your favorite characters.

Midway through Picard Season 3, just when you thought the sweet nostalgia couldn’t get any sweeter, we get this episode. Even explaining why this episode is called “The Bounty” is, oddly, a really cool spoiler.

While it's fashionable to complain about fan service in a big geek franchise, “The Bounty” (and Picard Season 3 in general) proves how fan service can be done well by making massive Easter eggs integral to a real and heartfelt story.

Bottom line: between the Fleet Museum of awesome starships and the Daystrom Institute’s vault of strange devices and creatures (and apparently, the bones of Captain Kirk!) this episode has so many Star Trek goodies in it that it feels like opening a pack of trading cards or something. Did we mention the holographic Moriarty is in this one and an HD flashback to the first Next Generation episode, ever? If ever even had a passing interest in Star Trek, this episode will remind you why just the basic stuff in this universe is so damn cool.

Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 5: “Spock Amok”

Chapel and Spock discuss just how bad Spock is at being engaged.

Star Trek meets Freaky Friday in perhaps the most tender and hilarious body-swap sci-fi TV episode, ever. In order to work out their relationship problems, Spock and T’Pring decide to swap katras, and briefly inhabit each other’s bodies. But, of course, the swap seems permanent, and so, Spock has to pretend to be T’Pring, while T’Pring has to convince everyone’s she’s Spock.

While Ethan Peck’s take on Spock has been pretty much spot-on since the ending of Discovery , Gia Sandhu was put in the unique position of not only having to play T’Pring in this episode, but Spock too! Sandhu was more than up to the challenge, and this episode solidified her as one of the most memorable Strange New Worlds recurring guest stars.

But “Spock Amok” isn’t just about body-swapping shenanigans. There’s also a great subplot here involving Pike trying to work out a bizarre diplomatic problem, while another delightful storyline focuses on La’an and Una playing “Enterprise Bingo.” So, come for the body swap that leads to the Chapel-Spock-T’Pring love triangle, but stay for an episode that will give you all the warm and fuzzy Trekkie feelings.

Short Treks Episode 5: “Q&A”

Number One AKA Una (Rebecca Romijn) shines in a one-of-a-kind minisode.

Although the anthology format of Short Treks seems to have not stuck long term, the fifth episode, “Q&A,” represents perfectly why the concept is so great. Do we need an entire episode that explores Spock’s very first day on the USS Enterprise in 2253? Probably not! But, in the anthology world of Short Treks , this small, very specific story could be told without too much fuss.

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (and Picard co-creator) Michael Chabon, “Q&A” finds Spock (Ethan Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijn) trapped together after a turbolift malfunctions. Here, Michael Chabon specifically attacked a real-life truth and combined it with a slick retcon. In Gene Roddenberry’s original conception of Star Trek , Number One would have been more like Spock. But when “The Cage” was rejected as a series pilot, and Roddenberry retooled the concept of Spock, many of Number One’s personality traits were given to Spock.

So, how does that work in canon? “Q&A” provides the answer. Spock clearly looks to Number One as his North Star when it comes to balancing his outward persona with his innermost feelings. Strange New Worlds has slightly walked back some of these themes more recently, but then again, several years have passed between “Q&A,” “The Cage,” and the most recent Number One-centric episode, “Ad Astra per Aspera.”

Discovery Season 1, Episode 7: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

Harry Mudd (Rainn Wilson) stops by Discovery to shake things up with a time loop.

Despite being the NuTrek series that launched the entire franchise, the serialized nature of Discovery makes it difficult to pick out just one episode, since so many episodes rely on dense season-long arcs. However, smack-dab in the middle of Discovery’s first season is a wonderful stand-alone episode called “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad.”

In it, Rainn Wilson makes his second appearance as Harry Mudd, a reboot (pre-boot?) of an actual mustache-twirling villain from Star Trek: The Original Series . This version of Mudd has time crystals, which allow him to turn the whole episode into a delightful time loop story. If more Discovery Season 1 episodes had been like this one, the show probably wouldn’t have faced such early opposition from fans and critics. This was an instant classic in 2017, and it holds up still.

Lower Decks Season 1, Episode 10: “No Small Parts”

The Easter egg in this opening scene is one of the deepest, and best cuts in all of Lower Decks . You either know who Landru is...or you’re not of the body.

Although you could populate this entire list with Lower Decks episodes that would convert cranky or confused fans, the Season 1 finale of the show might remain the most impressive. Although the internet will tell you that Lower Decks is just Rick and Morty with Trekkie jokes, nothing could be further from the truth. With “No Small Parts,” showrunner Mike McMahan took the structure of a TNG season finale and married that sensibility with the ethos of what the series is all about.

The crew of the USS Cerritos is often doing the mop-up chores of Starfleet, and so it makes sense that their greatest nemesis would be extremely silly alien pieces from TNG . And yet, when things really start to hit the fan, Lower Deck pulls out the big phasers with an unforgettable cameo that will put a smile on the face of even the most casual or jaded Star Trek fan. After you watch “No Small Parts,” you’ll immediately want to watch the next season, and guess what? You’ll find most Lower Decks episodes are just as good.

Strange New Worlds Season 2, Episode 9: “Subspace Rhapsody”

Captain Pike, seconds before hearing Klingons burst into song.

Although the notion of a Star Trek musical episode might sound like the ultimate example of NuTrek jumping the space shark, the truth is, the zany premise of “Subspace Rhapsody” is exactly the kind of concept The Original Series would have floated if it had had the budget.

When the Enterprise gets hit by an improbability field from a subspace fold, suddenly, they’re enveloped in a kind of reality that operates on the rules of a musical. Getting to the end of this musical reality is the goal of the episode, meaning the musical premise is what drives the entire episode.

That said, “Subspace Rhapsody” does an incredible amount of character work for nearly every member of the crew. This episode establishes the canonical fact that Nurse Chapel has to leave the Enterprise at some point in order to make sense of her wonky TOS chronology. Plus, Chapel dumping Spock in the song “I’m Ready” leads to Spock’s lament “I’m the X,” which effectively retcons the more emotional Spock we’ve seen throughout this series, Discovery , and the 1964 pilot episode “The Cage.”

All in all, “Subspace Rhapsody” represents what Strange New Worlds does best: it takes a huge risk by playing it safe. Or maybe it's the other way around.

Picard Season 3, Episode 10: “The Last Generation”

Raffi and Seven take charge of the USS Titan, which may have a totally different name now, but no spoilers!

The series finale of Picard is a weird episode to watch as your very first episode of NuTrek but, for longtime fans of the 1990s version of the franchise (which is an era that lasted from 1987 to 2005), this big, bold episode will remind you of all your favorite Star Trek toys.

While watching this episode out of context with the rest of Picard Season 3 could be disorienting, combined with its predecessor — the penultimate episode “Võx” — you’re getting a TNG movie that is much better than most of the actual TNG movies. Heartfelt, action-packed, and with nods to all corners of Trek fandom, “The Last Generation” is also a not-so-secret backdoor pilot for yet another Trek series that has yet to materialize. Fans and showrunner Terry Matalas have dubbed this hypothetical spinoff show as Star Trek: Legacy . Will we ever see it? There are always possibilities, but for now, the most crowd-pleasing NuTrek episode of them all will remain this absolute banger.

Picard, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, and Discovery all stream on Paramount+. Prodigy streams on Netflix.

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These Are Star Trek: The Original Series’ Essential Episodes

2021 marks the 55th anniversary of Star Trek. Here are all the best, most accessible episodes for new audiences from the original series.

With the iconic science-fiction franchise Star Trek coming to Paramount+ in its entirety , now is the perfect time for old fans to revisit and new viewers to introduce themselves to the series that started the global phenomenon as it celebrates its 55th anniversary this year. With three seasons totaling nearly eighty episodes in all, diving into the series can be a little intimidating for new audiences can be a bit intimidating but, fortunately, we have got you covered.

Listed below are the ten best, viewer-friendly episodes from the classic original series. The episodes are listed in the order of the dates in which they first aired rather than based on the quality of the entries themselves.

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Balance of Terror

While Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets were established early on as a largely peaceful, utopian society, the organization found itself in a heated conflict with several rival civilizations, the first being the Romulan Star Empire . Introduced in the Season 1 episode "Balance of Terror," the Enterprise investigated outposts attacked by a mysterious force along the border between the Federation and the Romulans.

"Balance of Terror" not only introduces audiences to the Romulans but also their similarities to the Vulcans, causing one xenophobic crewman to express suspicions regarding Spock. And even apart from what the episode introduces to the franchise, it also serves as an early example of starship combat in deep space as the crew faces an invisible enemy.

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The Federation has explored and colonized worlds out in the far reaches of the unknown and this comes back to explosively haunt them in the Season 1 episode "Arena." As the Enterprise visits a border colony, they are shocked to discover it destroyed by an attacking force known as the Gorn . Pursuing the attackers deep into uncharted space, Kirk and the Gorn captain are transported to a remote planet by an omnipotent being to duel to the death.

"Arena" is an episode that not only packs plenty of action but also beautifully showcases the Federation's mission statement of bringing peace to strange, new worlds, even when under direct attack. It also demonstrates just how resourceful Kirk is, forced to think quickly and draw in real-world science when faced against a far physically superior opponent.

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If there's one individual antagonist that is most closely linked to the entire Star Trek franchise, it's Khan Noonien Singh. Memorably portrayed by Ricardo Montalban in the Season 1 episode "Space Seed" and the acclaimed 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , the Kelvin timeline would attempt to introduce their own spin on the classic rivalry between Khan and the Enterprise in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness , portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch.

For Montalban's fantastic first performance as the instantly classic villain not only provides Captain Kirk and the crew with a worthy adversary but also perfectly sets up a rewatch of Wrath of Khan , exploring a plot thread that had gone on unresolved for fifteen years.

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Errand of Mercy

Just as the first season introduced the Romulans, it also introduced the more prominent antagonists for the Federation, the Klingon Empire . As a fresh round of negotiations for peace between the Federation and Klingons collapse and war is declared, the Enterprise finds itself on the frontlines as it moves to defend the peaceful world of Organia on the Klingon border from a sweeping invasion.

In addition to introducing one of the most iconic alien species in all of Star Trek with the Klingons, "Errand of Mercy" is perhaps the strongest episode in the original series to focus on the antagonism between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire. And while a tentative ceasefire is reached, the real-world Cold War parallels between the two civilizations would be further explored throughout the remainder of the series.

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The City on the Edge of Forever

One of the most widely praised episodes of any Star Trek series is Season 1's penultimate episode "The City on the Edge of Forever." A temporarily crazed Doctor McCoy travels back to 1930s America where he inadvertently changes history, forcing Kirk and Spock to retrieve him and restore the timeline.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" really shows how emotional and tragic Star Trek can truly be at times, with some of the best acting and writing the series has ever delivered. Immediately accessible for new audiences, there's a reason why this specific episode has continued to resonate across the franchise for over fifty years.

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The emotional core of the original Star Trek series and run of feature films really is the friendship between Kirk and Spock as they explore the wonders of the cosmos while defending the Federation. This friendship would lethally be put to the test in the Season 2 premiere episode "Amok Time" as Spock's Vulcan biology made him grow erratically violent as part of the Vulcan mating cycle.

"Amok Time" is the first serious, deep-dive into Spock's Vulcan heritage, culminating in the two friends pitted in a fight to the death as part of the ancient ceremony. And through it all, the episode contains some of Leonard Nimoy's finest work in the series and showcases just how important Spock and Vulcans are to the overall Star Trek mythos.

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Mirror, Mirror

One of the most recurring tropes across Star Trek is the existence of a morally inverted Mirror Universe , where the peaceful Federation and Starfleet were reimagined as the militaristic Terran Empire. After a transporter accident sends Kirk and the rest of his landing party to the Mirror Universe, they must elude familiar faces looking to kill them while searching for a way back to their dimension.

The Season 2 episode "Mirror, Mirror" not only introduces the Mirror Universe to the franchise but also is one of the best episodes in the series. Following the original series, the Mirror Universe would play a prominent part in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery as a testament to the episode's impact on the mythos.

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The Doomsday Machine

As a product of the Cold War, one of Star Trek 's most impressive episodes that drew inspiration straight from contemporary headlines was the Season 2 episode "The Doomsday Machine." As the Enterprise investigates the wreckage of a fellow Starfleet vessel, they stumble across a planet-killing device developed by warring civilizations before their arms race literally consumed them.

While the production design of the eponymous doomsday machine may be a bit dated, even with the remastered edition of the original series, the episode delivers Cold War parallels without being overly preachy and remembers to bring in the epic starship-based action as the Enterprise makes its last stand.

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Journey to Babel

While Spock's parents and their respective occupations had been mentioned in passing in the original series' first season, both characters would make a memorable appearance in the Season 2 episode "Journey to Babel." When the Enterprise hosts a contingent of ambassadors, including Spock's father Sarek and his mother Amanda, a lot of tension is brought aboard the ship.

Detailing Spock's complicated dynamic with his father while giving Kirk and McCoy plenty to do to keep the diplomatic mission from going off-the-rails, "Journey to Babel" brings the action, drama and fun in an excellent showcase of what the series is capable of.

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The Trouble with Tribbles

For all the hard sci-fi and philosophical musings Star Trek is capable of, it's also a show that's well-aware how far out there it can be and occasionally leans into the more comedic possibilities of its premise to great effect. The most memorable instance of the more humorous explorations of the original series is in the Season 2 episode "The Trouble with Tribbles."

While visiting a Federation space station, the Enterprise discovers the station is overrun with a small, rapidly reproducing lifeform known as a Tribble , which quickly spreads to the ship. And as Kirk and the crew search for a way to deal with the growing Tribble population, they have to contend with the arrival of the Klingons at the station. In terms of balancing stakes and laughs, no episode in the original series does it better than "The Trouble with Tribbles."

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ S5 Review: Final Season Is Its Best

This season has a brisk pace and the sense of fun that in the past has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes..

Star Trek: Discovery occupies an interesting place in the celebrated franchise. It was the first Trek series of the streaming era, the first to debut behind a paywall, the first produced after J.J. Abrams’ big screen reboot, and the first to put a woman of color in the captain’s chair. Discovery redefined the look and feel of the franchise on television, bringing Trek into the modern world of feature-level photography, effects, and pace of story. It blazed a trail for a new generation of Trek media, like direct spin-off Strange New Worlds and the upcoming Section 31 TV movie. It is also not terribly popular amidst the old guard of Trekkies, nor is it a mainstream hit or a critical darling. Discovery has struggled to find its footing from the very beginning and is still uneven after years of retooling. I do not consider its cancellation after five seasons to be a tragic loss for television. However, Discovery may still have one “first” left to achieve: It may be the first Star Trek series whose final season is its best. 

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(A quick personal note to the handful of Trekkies who just clutched their pearls: Season 4 of Enterprise is not better than Season 3, it merely has more familiar stuff for fans to point at with childlike glee. And you’ve likely already read my thoughts on Picard ’s final season .)

Even as a critic of the show, I have to acknowledge that every season of Discovery has started with a bang. It’s the nature of a serialized, season-long story arc to kick off with something resembling the first act of a feature film, and Season 5 is no different. The opening chapter, “Red Directive,” is a fast-paced space adventure packed with flashy action set pieces. The illustrious Captain Michael Burnham ( Sonequa Martin-Green ) and her crew are on the trail of Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), a spacefaring Bonnie and Clyde who have stumbled across a secret with enormous implications for the future of the galaxy. Just like the previous three seasons, this sets Team Disco off on another cosmic scavenger hunt, jumping to a new world each week to find the next clue to the season’s grander mystery. 

Historically, this is where Discovery has run into trouble. While each chapter tends to have its own contained adventure plot or even a classic Trek “message of the week,” they’re rarely that memorable and they advance the season’s overarching storyline without adding much depth. This season, though, has a brisk pace and a sense of fun that, previously, has been crushed under the weight of grave galactic stakes. Paramount has promoted this season as having an Indiana Jones energy to it , and that’s a fair comparison. The characters are enjoying themselves more, and for the first time since Season 2, the story isn’t built around some unfathomable tragedy. T o my best recollection, none of the episodes provided in advance to critics feature any crying. That’s four consecutive episodes, possibly a new track record.

This is not the only way in which Discovery ’s new season throttles back on the show’s occasionally cloying sentimentality. The season premiere introduces a new character, Captain Rayner ( Callum Keith Rennie ), a gruff pragmatist who serves as a contrast to Burnham’s soft-spoken, personable, firmly feminine command style. At first, Rayner appears to be a straw man representing aggro, entitled white male authority, a trope Discovery goes to often. As the season progresses, Rayner acquires some depth and even some likability. It’s fun to watch this grumpy old guy interact with a cast full of characters who are totally in touch with their feelings. Most importantly, Rayner provides something that the series has needed ever since Burnham took command of Discovery: a professional peer with whom to disagree and occasionally compromise. It’s an essential role that her first officer, Saru ( Doug Jones ), has become too adoring and loyal to play. Burnham has earned the devotion of her crew, but watching her gracefully manage dissent only enhances her aura of strength and leadership.

Even though production was wrapped before Discovery was canceled (with additional shooting after that announcement to tie up loose ends), Season Five feels like a finale from the very beginning. A few characters are moving on with their lives, pursuing new interests and relationships. There are more fun, non-intrusive callbacks to Treks past than in the last two seasons, which makes it feel a bit like a victory lap for the streaming era’s flagship show. Above all, there is a sense of ease, as if the cast and crew have finally got their engine running smoothly and can cruise to the finish line. It’s the energy a series possesses at its peak, a point to which fans will often look back and say “They probably should have stopped there.” Barring a significant misstep in its final six episodes, Star Trek: Discovery will never be past its prime, and that’s a distinction its creators can wear with pride. 

• SEE ALSO : Hank Azaria On What It Takes to Change

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How Star Trek's Vulcans Evolved Beyond Gene Roddenberry's Creation

Quick links, creating the vulcans in the original series era of star trek, the vulcans stay at arm's length during the next generation era, how star trek: enterprise reimagined the vulcans and history with humanity, the vulcans and romulans are living in the days of futures past.

When Gene Roddenberry was first creating his " Wagon Train to the stars" in 1964, the Vulcans were the first alien species he created during development. Personified by Mister Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy), these logical humanoids were imagined with pointed ears, green blood and, most importantly, no emotions. However, Nimoy, other actors and writers all contributed behind the scenes to making Vulcans the most important aliens in Star Trek history. What's interesting about the Vulcans is that along with being a logical and scientific people, they are also deeply spiritual and ritualistic. This seems a bit like an incongruity, especially knowing how adamant Roddenberry was about humanism over religion.

Later storytellers helped reconcile these two facets of the Vulcan culture by fleshing out the species' history. Along with strong psychic abilities, the Vulcans are not emotionless. Rather, they have very intense and destructive emotions, far different from their human cousins. Thus, ritualism and spirituality are the "scientific method" they use to suppress their emotions in healthy and constructive ways. In the modern, third wave of Star Trek series, the Vulcan culture continues to be examined with storytellers continuing to build on the foundation laid by Roddenberry, D.C. Fontana, Star Trek's "other" Gene , Nimoy and everyone from set designers to costumers.

'The Phone Didn't Ring': Walter Koenig Reflects on Career Struggles After Star Trek

When developing the first Star Trek pilot in 1964, Gene Roddenberry hadn't fully fleshed out the idea of what the Vulcans were. Vulcans existed only so far as making Spock half-human. "I wanted part of him to be at war with the other, the human part and the alien part," he said in The Fifty-Year Mission by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman. Later, when developing the second Star Trek pilot, thanks to Lucille Ball , Roddenberry combined Spock's character with the "computer-mind qualities" of Number One, the woman First Officer discarded in the second version. That's how they became unemotional and logic-based.

In The Making of Star Trek by Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield, the former envisioned that, despite the multispecies Federation, crews would be mostly human, Vulcan or other member species. As Spock became Star Trek 's central character , more stories about his people were created. Sarek, his father, was brought into the show. The classic Season 2 episode "Amok Time" introduced the Vulcan homeworld, while also establishing that Vulcans, while logical, were almost irrationally private about their most basic biological functions.

Leonard Nimoy was also essential to defining who the Vulcans were. He created the infamous Vulcan neck pinch and the salute, drawn from his Jewish heritage. Later, in the films, he would weigh in on Vulcan culture, defining it exclusively once he started directing. In The Center Seat - 55 Years of Star Trek , actor Robin Curtis who played Saavik described how Nimoy created the "love scene" between her and the reanimated Spock going through his first Pon Farr. Set and costume designers tried to marry the ideas Vulcans were scientific and logical as well as an ancient society. Their robes, ceremonial accessories and mostly stone structures were born from this notion.

9 Things About Star Trek: The Original Series That Make No Sense

When Gene Roddenberry was asked by Paramount to develop Star Trek: The Next Generation he turned to many of his collaborators from the days of the original series. Robert H. Justman, Dorothy Fontana, David Gerrold and others came back to help, though they didn't last long on the series. While many concepts from The Original Series were reused for The Next Generation , Roddenberry didn't want to include too many familiar elements. Primarily, this meant the Vulcans. There were no regular Vulcan characters in any of the second-wave series until Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager .

Despite the lack of regular Vulcan characters, there was significant advancement to the Vulcan story. The first came in Season 3's "Sarek," in which it's revealed that Vulcans live hundreds of years longer than humans. This episode also introduced what writer Marc Cushman called "the idea of a Vulcan going through senility," in The Fifty-Year Mission . Roddenberry liked the idea, but in the same book writer Ira Steven Behr reveals there was a massive fight with producers over whether they could even say Spock's name. Later, Paramount would convince Nimoy to bring Spock to Star Trek: The Next Generation to "pass the baton" and promote Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

The episode featured Spock seemingly defecting from the Federation to the Romulan Star Empire. Only he wasn't defecting. Spock wanted to bring the logic philosophy of Surak to Romulus in the hopes of reunifying the Romulans and the Vulcans into a single society again. Some fans felt the episode was too small, and executive producer Michael Piller said he was unhappy with his work on the episode. He called the episode "dark," "flat" and "talky" in The Fifty-Year Mission . In hindsight, it's a love swan song for the Spock character. He shares a lovely scene with Data, and his final mission puts him on a path to making the last great enemy of his time in Starfleet an ally.

Star Trek The Next Generation: When Does TNG Get Good?

Every new iteration of Roddenberry's universe since Star Trek: The Animated Series has been met with skepticism, and in some cases, outright hostility from fans. Star Trek: Enterprise perhaps received the most flak, in part because of how it depicted the pre-Federation history of the Vulcans and humans. Rather than dear friends, the Vulcans were antagonistic and did not trust the emotional humans to join the larger galactic society. Enterprise 's creators were trying to do something different without moving things too far from what makes Star Trek so identifiable.

Still, there were conflicts. Antoinette Stella recounted in The Fifty-Year Mission when an angry fan called Paramount to complain a Vulcan character lied. Her assistant, Juan Hernandez spoke to the fan, who pointed out Spock said Vulcans don't lie, quoting The Original Series . "And Juan took a beat and said, 'When Mr. Spock said that, he was lying." In fact, there are many examples of Spock lying, especially in The Undiscovered Country . The Enterprise storytellers made Vulcans more complete by showing they had the same kind of idiosyncrasies and character flaws as any group of people .

The showrunner for season 4, Manny Coto , helped to reconcile the Vulcans of Enterprise with the Vulcans fans knew. " I thought there was a great opportunity to do [a series of episodes] which bridged those two cultures and to develop a story about how they'd floundered from the original teachings of Surak ," he said in The Fifty-Year Mission . Not only did it help explain why these Vulcans seemed so different, it also underscored why Vulcans and humanity would be close allies while still maintaining the elements of secrecy and tension established in previous series.

Review: Discovery's Final Season Is a Bittersweet Star Trek Symphony

The third wave of series -- particularly Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds -- faced fan consternation as well, particularly because of their handling of Vulcan history. Michael Burnham, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, was conceived as Spock's adopted sister, raised by Sarek and Amanda Grayson after her parents died. This gave viewers a new angle on Vulcan culture, from "logic extremists" to a reunified Vulcan and Romulan society in the 32nd Century . The producers know that Vulcans are extremely important to Star Trek , so they want to both honor the past and advance their story, justifying the use of the characters.

The best development to come of this is fixing the biggest mistake of the Kelvin Timeline films . The time-travel convention used to bring Nimoy's Spock into the past inadvertently meant his final mission was a failure. Yet, by the 32nd Century, Spock's mission to unify Vulcan and Romulans is a success, and they fully credit him for the development. This was an important element for Discovery Season 3, according to showrunner Michelle Paradise , allowing Burnham to discover just how far her adopted brother reached out to the galaxy.

In Strange New Worlds , however, some of the Vulcan cultural developments happen as they did in The Original Series era: out of story necessity. For example, the Vulcan V'Shal ritual "purely came out of [writers] breaking the story," co-showrunner Henry Alonso Meyers said . While the storytellers wanted to keep it authentic to Vulcan culture, it was created because it was funny to put Spock through a "when he's 'pretending' to be Vulcan" scenario. The danger of treating Star Trek Vulcans with too much regard for their sacred history is underserving the stories being told today . Thankfully, Star Trek has found that balance as it always does.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

Created by Gene Roddenberry

First Film Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Latest Film Star Trek: Nemesis

First TV Show Star Trek: The Original Series

Latest TV Show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Cast Nichelle Nichols, Scott Bakula, Kate Mulgrew, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Avery Brooks, Deforest Kelley, James Doohan

TV Show(s) Star Trek: Animated, Star trek, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Lower Decks

Star Trek: Section 31 to Feature the Fearless Captain of Enterprise-C Last Seen in 1990

The upcoming movie Star Trek: Section 31 will feature a character nearly forgotten with its last appearance made over three decades ago.

• Star Trek: Section 31 will showcase a new movie featuring beloved characters like Captain Rachel Garrett, offering excitement to fans.
• Section 31, a secret group in Star Trek universe, operates covertly inside the United Federation of Planets, differing from Starfleet's values.
• By blending old fan favorites with new content in Star Trek: Section 31, producers aim to satisfy existing fans while attracting new ones.

Star Trek is bringing fans a new movie in Star Trek: Section 31 which will feature several well-loved characters in the franchise, including Captain Rachel Garrett.

Star Trek: Section 31 is a secret organization in the Star Trek universe. It is portrayed as a covert operations and intelligence agency that functions inside the United Federation of Planets. In contrast to Starfleet's idealistic and utopian ideals, Section 31 is prepared to use dubious methods and transgress moral standards in order to further the Federation's objectives and fans will see all of these in Michelle Yeoh's anticipated movie Star Trek: Section 31 . Aside from the exciting plot, the Star Trek: Discovery's spinoff will feature several extras from Star Trek aliens and the return of some favorite characters, including Garrett, previously played by Tricia O'Neal. The character was first introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation "Yesterday's Enterprise" in 1990. It was also the last time she was seen, so many were surprised by Garrett's return to the franchise in Section 31 because she hadn't been seen for decades.

William Shatner Reveals One Condition To Reprise Role in Star Trek

Kacey Rohl's casting in Star Trek: Section 31 was reported in January, but it wasn't until recently that her character was confirmed. Rohl will be playing a younger version of Garrett, the captain of the USS Enterprise-C, a predecessor to the USS Enterprise-D. She responded to a distress call and ordered the Enterprise to engage with the attackers -- four Romulan Warbirds -- at Narendra III.

Screenwriter Craig Sweeny admitted to Variety that he aimed to "deliver an entertaining experience" in the upcoming film that is true to the Star Trek lore and would appeal to potential new fans. The addition of Garrett would give old fans a good feeling because the character was familiar to them. On the other hand, the new audience doesn't have to worry if they do not know the character because they will not miss anything if they fail to notice it. According to Alex Kurtzman, the Star Trek executive producer, they have to deliver to their primary fans while winning new audiences to ensure the future of the franchise.

Kurtzman said this about pleasing their fanbase.

You cannot create new fans to the exclusion of old fans. You must serve your primary fan base first and you must keep them happy. That is one of the most important steps to building new fans.

Garrett was a fearless and bold captain. She made a sacrifice to end the Federation's war with the Klingon Empire by defending the latter at Jean-Luc Picard's advice . Picard told her that sacrificing a Federation Starship to defend the Klingon outpost from the Romulans would be seen by the Empire as an honorable act and could potentially end their feud with the Klingon Empire. Garret did what she needed to do, even if it cost her life. Her sacrifice moved solid Star Trek fans and she made a mark on the franchise despite her brief appearance. A younger version will also be a treat for fans who want to know more about the backstory of the brave captain.

Additionally, Garrett's return in Star Trek: Section 31 could be revisited in the context of Section 31 's clandestine operations. Given Garrett's reputation as a skilled and courageous captain, her involvement with Section 31 could add an intriguing dimension to the organization's activities. Section 31 is a secretive and covert organization within Starfleet that operates outside the bounds of traditional Starfleet regulations to protect the Federation's interests and Garrett's sacrifice was a perfect example of that. Garrett had to be the sacrificial lamb in order to keep the Federation solid.

Star Trek : Section 31 is expected to hit theaters in 2026.

Star Trek is a space exploration franchise originally created by Gene Roddenberry. The series has spanned shows like The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Voyager. More recently, developer Scopely came out with Star Trek Fleet Command, a mobile title where you get to be captain of your own ship.

Star Trek: Discovery's Finale Apparently Depends on an Easter Egg From Episode 1

Source: Variety

Den of Geek

Star Trek Just Hinted at the Return of Unexpected Original Series Enterprise Lore

A blink-and-you'll miss it shot in a new trailer for Star Trek: Discovery season 5 suggests that we're not done with the Mirror Universe...

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We knew Discovery was different from the start. Pitched as a prequel to The Original Series , the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery had a ton of references to the first Trek series, including Michael Burnham as Spock’s adopted sister, which also meant appearances from Sarek and Amanda Grayson (no Sybok, though, sadly), as well as Kirk’s predecessor Captain Pike.

The most audacious connection to The Original Series came with the revelation that Discovery ‘s Captain Gabriel Lorca came from the Mirror Universe, that evil alternate dimension first introduced in the TOS season two episode “Mirror, Mirror.” In that 1967 episode, written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Marc Daniels, an ion storm disrupts Kirk’s attempt to beam back to the Enterprise, causing him to materialize abroad on the alternate-universe ISS Enterprise, part of the Terran Empire.

While Discovery ‘s first season did visit the Mirror Universe, where they found a bloodthirsty version of Tilly and Empress of the Terran Empire Philippa Georgiou, Michael Burnham and her team never encountered the ISS Enterprise. But that might be about to change…

At the end of Discovery ‘s season five premiere “Red Directive,” viewers saw a brief trailer teasing the remaining episodes. Most of the images involved the usual decontextualized quotes, familiar characters shooting or avoiding phaser blasts, and various character shots (including the return of Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno!). But one keen-eyed viewer caught a glimpse of something very interesting among the array of images.

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Constitution-class starship pic.twitter.com/MxChWhLHC1 — Christian Schlieper (@ChrisSchlieper) April 5, 2024

There’s a chance it might be the ISS Enteprise. On the first screenshot you can read « 1701 », and in the trailers there are shots of the Terran Empire emblem in SNW’s sickbay. And S05E05 has a name that adds up to this theory. — JazzyParallax (@Ghhaust) April 5, 2024

After the account The Art of Star Trek posted the playful tweet about “a flash of something intriguing in this trailer,” user Christian Schlieper got more direct: a Constitution-Class starship peering through the mist. User JazzyParallax followed up with a more thorough explanation, noting that “There’s a chance it might be the ISS Enterprise.” As proof, JazzyParallax argues, “On the first screenshot you can read « 1701 », and in the trailers there are shots of the Terran Empire emblem in SNW ’s sickbay. And S05E05 has a name that adds up to this theory.”

As Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green revealed to Den of Geek magazine, she and the producers did not know that season five would be the series’ last when they began work on it. For that reason, the Mirror Universe might be bringing the series full circle, while the ship also explores the Progenitors introduced in the Next Generation episode “The Chase.”

There’s a nice thematic echo as the show closes up its run. Outside of paving the way for the wonderful Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , the first two seasons of Discovery were full of controversial decisions and sudden tonal shifts as the show tried to find its footing. No one would blame current showrunner Michelle Paradise for ignoring those rough patches altogether. But if indeed that’s the ISS Enterprise , then Discovery ‘s wink at TOS and its first season serves as a nice recognition of how far the show has come. Because, to paraphrase another controversial prequel series that changed focus after two seasons, it has been a long road, getting from there to here.

Star Trek: Discovery is now streaming on Paramount+.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

After 'The Boys,' Watch This Underrated Antony Starr Crime Series Next

While Starr is known for 'The Boys,' his role in this 2013 drama is a must-watch.

The Big Picture

• Antony Starr showcases versatility by embodying different personas in Banshee and The Boys .
• Banshee offers an engaging crime story with superheroesque characters and gritty action sequences.
• The show features memorable mythical villains and realistic, brutal fight scenes, making it an underrated gem.

Since the release of The Boys , actor Antony Starr has risen to a new level of Hollywood stardom with his performance as the superhero antagonist Homelander, becoming the show’s biggest draw among the entire cast . Although this was the performance that put Starr on the map in a definitive way, it’s far from his only watch-worthy series. In 2013, he appeared as the lead protagonist in the Cinemax crime drama Banshee . Compared with his work in The Boys , his performance in this show truly shows what a rare charm he brings to the screen. Antony Starr proves himself to be a master of the craft in the way he takes on a completely different look and persona in Banshee , which feels so different from his role in The Boys yet with a startlingly similar essence.

He appears in the show as an ex-convict on the run from his former boss, who settles down in a small town assuming the identity of its new sheriff, Lucas Hood. Banshee is an underrated gem that delivers an engaging and gritty crime story with a myriad of standout characters and a gory action style that is enjoyably stylistic and genuinely deserves credit as some of the best action seen on TV. Not just that, but the show comes with comparisons to the classic superhero genre , along with tasteful subversions, that make it a perfect companion watch to follow up after The Boys . Between charismatic villains, gray characters with their own agendas, and complicated interrelationships with multiple warring sides, the show has the perfect mix of chaos to appeal to The Boys fans.

An ex-con assumes the identity of a murdered sheriff in the small town of Banshee, Pennsylvania, where he has some unfinished business.

Antony Starr Brings a Familiar Grit in ‘Banshee’

Antony Starr is the kind of actor who can immerse himself, body and soul, in any role he takes on. While his performance in The Boys was powerful enough to garner him an entire fan following, his work in Banshee lets you truly appreciate his acting chops. It begins with the fact that even without much drastic change in his looks, Starr manages to appear like a completely different person , donning just a different hairdo. It’s the first thing to strike your attention, as you find it difficult to recognize that this is the same man who plays Homelander.

Lucas Hood is the complete opp osite of Homelander in how he communicates and carries himself. While the latter has an utterly despicable persona that is loud and narcissistic, Hood carries an aura of youthful physicality and a thousand-yard stare, capable of switching between rumination and action instantaneously. As a former criminal, his moral compass feels curiously dubious . The show presents his decision to take on the sheriff’s identity as something unavoidable, given the circumstances. But the ex-convict quickly begins to feel at home in the role, enjoying the ability to make the lives of the townsfolk better. At the same time, a recurring theme is the thin line that divides a criminal from a lawman. People around Hood regularly comment on his willingness to get his hands dirty, telling him that his instincts and personality resemble that of a criminal more than that of a police officer.

In this theme, the character of Lucas Hood demonstrates a core similarity with Homelander, and the broader template set for most characters in The Boys . It is pointed out time and again throughout Banshee that Hood carries around a darkness in his heart; this characteristic is one of the most compelling aspects of Starr’s performance in the show. Hood is always eager to solve the case first and worried about the legalities second. A sense of darkness, secrecy, and urgency come hand-in-hand with an eagerness to do good. At the same time, he always seems to enjoy throwing down at the smallest provocation, leading the way to many of the show’s fight sequences and its most memorable quips. His dark and reserved persona finds a perfect setting in the gritty nature of the show.

‘Banshee’ Applies Superhero Tropes to the Crime Drama Setting

Despite having the looks of a run-of-the-mill crime drama, the show does have similarities to the typical superhero setting. These parallels cannot be considered intentional, as Banshee was released years before The Boys and holds no connections to the superhero genre. Instead, the clever signatures in the show's writing displays create a parallel with the superhero genre , turning it into an essential piece of real-life lore in Starr's journey to becoming the iconic superhero villain, Homelander. Years after the MCU phenomenon broke ground in Hollywood, the superhero genre today is all about subversions and callbacks , and how a new superhero title handles them makes it fun. Banshee makes a similar play with typical crime drama tropes in building up its setting. Along this course, the show develops similarities to the superhero genre, applying them seamlessly to a crime drama context. The similarities are mainly seen in the show's central characters, who give the appearance of a​​​​​​​ classic superhero team setup and are almost stereotypical in that way. But with simple twists and some brilliant writing, these characters come to life in memorable ways.

It begins with Starr’s leading character himself: Lucas Hood is an assumed identity of a man with a flawed past but a willingness to do good. Felony records and an old heist team-up bring some of his old crew back together and develop a natural camaraderie between him and some of the town’s old residents. We get Sugar Bates ( Frankie Faison ), a former boxer and felon who acts as the lair keeper, his bar acting as the superhero lair for all of Hood’s secret activities. Job ( Hoon Lee ) is the guy in the chair, a cross-dressing hair stylist who moonlights as a highly competent computer hacker. He is an old acquaintance from Hood’s former life, forced to move into the town of Banshee with him after Hood unwittingly blows his cover. Similarly, Ana ( Ivana Miličević ) is his former love interest with whom Hood has unfinished business and the whole reason that he moved into the town in the first place. In the 15 years that he was in jail, Ana took on a new identity, getting married to a Banshee resident, and the two developed a hot-and-cold relationship reminiscent of the gray allegiance between Batman and Catwoman.

‘Banshee’ Loves Villains With a Mythical Sheen

There are other parallels between Banshee and the superhero genre; across its four-season runtime, Banshee demonstrates a penchant for creating magnetic, memorable characters that appear almost mythical, standing apart from the crime genre. This was one of the aspects that gave the show such a unique quality. In that vein, its villains have the same kind of personas as superhero villains , the most noteworthy one being the resident crime lord of the town of Banshee, Kai Proctor ( Ulrich Thomsen ), a Lex Luthor or a Kingpin equivalent in that he is a charismatic villain whose power comes from his mind and his enterprise.

Another standout character with such a persona is the Albino, a specter from Hood’s time in prison. Larger and more muscular than any other inmate, he comes across as an unreal being due to his skin condition. Put together a slow and deliberate style of communication, the Albino feels less like a real person and more like a fairy tale character. The deputy officer, Kurt Bunker ( Tom Pelphrey ), who first appears in the third season, also has a compelling history and personality that gives him an unusually strong screen presence. Given that he is a supporting character, this characterization is unusual for a crime drama, making him another character aligned with this quality of the show. The deliberate nature of such characterizations adds an intriguing layer to Banshee . Though they blend into the crime drama setting strangely, such characters elevate the show to another level, making an interesting comparison to the subversive superhero universe that defines The Boys .

The Action in ‘Banshee’ is Gruesome and Underrated

The action is a standout part of Banshee , good enough to make you wonder why it is such an underrated show. It continuously amazes you with mind-blowing action set pieces and gruesome fight scenes . Consider the chase sequence from the pilot episode, when Hood is pursued by his former employer after being released from prison. The chaotic nature of the scene, the big thrills, and the crashes easily remind you of something like Mission: Impossible , with the added grittiness of Heat .

The fight sequences, of which there are plenty, are no less fascinating as they are always messy in the best way, ending up in a puddle of blood. Banshee doesn’t try to impress you with unconvincing elements; its action won’t remind you of the crisp fight choreography of John Wick . However, each action scene is shot and choreographed with its own brilliance, always giving a realistic feeling. For example, in an early scene, Hood gets into a spat with a world-class MMA fighter. It’s a losing battle for Hood until he begins to use his environment to his advantage, allowing him to win the fight in the most realistic way. A clear contrast is shown between the mentality and fighting styles of a professional fighter facing off against a former convict who survived a dangerous prison. At the same time, the scene develops with flashbacks of Hood’s time in prison, drawing parallels between a formative incident from his prison days and his current experience of duking it out with a trained athlete.

Banshee certainly found a perfect actor for its leading man in Antony Starr. With a fascinating set of unique layers, memorable characters, and a gritty action style that holds its own against some of the best blockbuster films out there, Starr succeeded in evoking a quiet darkness that fit perfectly into the show. With so many comparable elements to the classic superhero genre, Banshee can be a very rewarding watch for any fan of The Boys .

Banshee is available to stream on HBO Max in the U.S.

Watch on Max