Star Trek: The Original Series’ Essential Episodes

[Jim Kelly]

This is just a selection of ten episodes. I could list another ten and they'd be just as essential viewing. This is one of my favourite T.V. series of all time.

▪ "The Cage"--I say "The Cage" because "The Menagerie" was two episodes and I don't want to waste two spots for just one story--and anyway, I'm all about the Susan Oliver and she was all in "The Cage"
▪ "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"--Shirley Jackson hummina hummina hummina
▪ "Miri"--I like me a good Yeoman Rand story
▪ "The Squire of Gothos"--ah, Trelane
▪ "The City on the Edge of Forever"--obviously
▪ "Mirror Mirror"--the worst timeline
▪ "A Piece of the Action"--it's a royal fizzbin
▪ "Assignment Earth"--for Teri Garr
▪ "The Paradise Syndrome"--this one always makes me sad for Kirk
▪ "Wink of an Eye"--you've got Kathie Browne, a mystery for Spock to solve and a science fiction premise worthy of the Flash--what's not to like?

[Gray Lensman]

12 hour days isn't helpful to coming up with lists, but I'll add one that hasn't been mentioned - A Private Little War, one of the very first episodes of ANYTHING to comment on the Vietnam War without making the person against it automatically wrong or some kindkfuseful idiot. And even though it ends in what seems at first to be a pro-war stance, Kirk correcting himself and instead of guns asks for Scotty to make "100 serpents to let loose in the Garden of Eden" lets the audience know he isn't happy about it, but that he is merely taking what he thinks is the least crappy option.

It has the morality play, the 'distract the censors with the sexy' trope Trek leaned into often to get stuff by them, and is a rather important episode of the show despite it not being on any lists yet.