"10 of the Most Underrated Episodes of the Original ..." Topic

…Star Trek Series.

"Through multiple TV series, even more movies, and innumerable off-shoot properties and fan versions, Star Trek has become a cultural juggernaut and science fiction touchstone. But for all the canon that now exists, it still all goes back to the original series in the 1960s.

Hitting the airwaves in September 1966, the original series (or TOS for OGs) launched the crew of the Enterprise into the hearts of sci-fi lovers from coast-to-coast and started what would be one of the most fervent fan-bases ever. Gene Roddenberry's series' run went on for three seasons – the final one thanks to an impassioned letter-writing campaign – and nearly 80 episodes before wrapping up in 1969. Yet, even as fans grew to love the swagger of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), the logical deadpan of Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the weird quirks of Dr. McCoy – not every episode of that original run is gold. Or, as Fry put it in a Trek-themed episode of Futurama in 2002: "79 episodes. About 30 good ones…"
Full article here.
link

Which is your favourite?

My vote goes for "Space Seed".

Amicalement
Armand

Link?

"Mirror, Mirror".
imdb.com/title/tt0708438

Balance of Terror
the Doomsday Machine close 2nd

Liked Balance of Terror but also the Trouble with Tribbles

The City on the Edge of Forever

Most of those are on my list of Favorites

The only one I dont like is the Space Hippies episode.All the others I can and do watch over and over,and thanks to ME TV,I get to do just that once a week.

My top 4 are probably:-
"Mirror, Mirror"
"Balance of Terror"
"The Menagerie/The Cage"
"Assignment Earth"

Well really hard to choose…..

I also liked "The City on the Edge of Forever"

Wolf in the fold.
Thats the one with Jack the Ripper!

Balance of Terror is probably my all-time favorite, but it certainly does not appear to be underrated considering the details in some of the comments. Mark Lenard was one of my favorite actors from that period. His characterization of the Romulan commander makes the episode.

Rick

I've always been a fan of "Devil in the Dark."
"Wolf in the Fold" freaked me out when I saw it as a teen— even gave me nightmares. Not bad for a cheesy sixties show!

Others I like have mostly been mentioned, but I'll add
"The Doomsday Device"
"Operation: Annihilate!" (though Spock's eyelids are a lame cheat)
"A Private Little War"
"The World is Hollow, for I Have Touched the Sky"— just because of the terrific title and the scene with the quote. My first introduction to the "hollow world that's really a spaceship" concept (I hadn't read much Heinlein yet).

And of course, "Amok Time," with all its Vulcan weirdness.

Private little war. Really liked that one.
Balance of Terror.
The Omega Glory. The Coms and Yangs.
A Piece of the Action.

There actually were a lot of good episodes. Many hold up better than TNG episodes do.

Thanks,

John

A lot of good episodes, but my favorite is "The City on the Edge of Forever." A great script and an incredible performance by Shatner.

Balance of Terror
Arena
The Devil in the Dark
A private Little War
Let that be your last Battlefield- just something about two fanatics chasing each other for nothing, sad.

The one that always haunted me and kept me up at night thinking about it was "The Alternative Factor". As Kirk says at the end, "But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus". I wondered if I could fight my duplicate for all of eternity to save two dimensions? Was I brave enough? What would it be like to fight a mad man at your throat forever?

Well when you watched the "Hippie Episode" as a young teen, Chekov's love interest was well, very interesting :-)

Actually an interesting premise behind the episode in my mind. Seeking paradise rather than trying to make things better in the now. Besides, with the technology prevalent on the ship and the Federation society in general, it makes one wonder what the hippies were really looking for?

I'll put my quatloos on The Gamesters of Triskelion.

My all time fav is "City on the Edge of Forever." I believe Harlan Ellison vowed to never write for those guys again due to the changes they made, too.

This seems more like a Favorite episode list than a "underrated" list!

Let's see -- City on the Edge of Forever; Space Seed; Who Mourns for Adonais?; Devil in the Dark; Mirror, Mirror; The Menagerie/The Cage; Balance of Terror; the show where the crew loses their inhibitions; the one with Nomad the super-computer; those are all classics to me. I have a fondness for some of the over-the-top, campy ones, too, shame on me. The one with the space hippies just makes me laugh and laugh. That's another level of enjoyment. Also the one where Kirk's body is taken over by a female (and vice-versa) is a masterpiece of hammy acting by Shatner.

And anything with green Orion dancing girls.

Underrated? None of them it seems…. besides, who is doing this 'official rating'….

IMHO, yeah, about 10-20 'good episodes' IIRC… but I am not a Trek fan… :)