10 Most Unique Star Trek Episodes
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00:00Star Trek is at its best when it's pushing boundaries with its storytelling.
00:03That is not simply limited to the actual stories it's telling,
00:07but also the means by which it delivers them.
00:09The original series was famous for its morality plays
00:11and the clever use of the relatively small budget it had to work with.
00:15The Next Generation fared slightly better in some respects,
00:17but even when it tried to cost-cut,
00:19it could actually deliver some of the most powerful moments in television.
00:22Trek could delve into murky, morally dubious places
00:25and could rise to the highest heights,
00:27shaking the ceiling of every theatre Broadway has to offer.
00:30With that being said, I'm Tom Roberts-Finn,
00:32and this is the 10 Most Unique Star Trek Episodes.
00:36Number 10. The Menagerie
00:38The Menagerie, also known as the episode where the crew get together to watch a movie,
00:42was significant in a number of ways in 1966.
00:45First, it was the first and only two-part episode in the original series' entire run.
00:49Second, it consisted heavily of footage that had been reused from the cage.
00:53Though Geoffrey Hunter did not return to reprise the role of Christopher Pike,
00:56Sean Kenny sat in his place.
00:58From there, a tale of loyalty and Vulcan stubbornness plays out over both parts.
01:02It would be easy to write this episode off as filler,
01:05and to be fair, there is a large amount of time dedicated to watching Pike's adventures on Talos 4.
01:09But the framing is what truly makes it stand out.
01:12The cage, though it hadn't been aired at that point,
01:14showed the audience a very different spark,
01:16along with a different atmosphere on the Enterprise itself.
01:18Though William Shatner's Kirk and Hunter's Pike never shared any scenes,
01:22it is fascinating to see the juxtaposition of the command styles.
01:24The menagerie also offered us the iconic bleep bloop chair,
01:28as well as those beautiful original-style dress uniforms.
01:31Number 9, Assignment Earth.
01:33Assignment Earth serves as the season finale for the original series' second year,
01:38while also trying to serve as a backdoor pilot for a new spin-off series that Gene Roddenberry was thinking of.
01:43Robert Lansing's Gary Seven may never again have appeared on our screens,
01:46but the episode is a fun romp all the same.
01:49That is to say, it was fun from this side of the viewing experience.
01:52Actor Terry Garr had such an unpleasant time,
01:55thanks primarily to Roddenberry's hyper-focus on the length of her skirt,
01:58that she swore off ever returning to Star Trek,
02:01and generally doesn't enjoy discussing it at conventions.
02:03Though this has somewhat tainted the episode's legacy,
02:06The Guardian saw a return in Star Trek Picard's second season.
02:09Talon, an agent stationed on Earth,
02:11listened to Picard talk to her about Gary Seven's adventure,
02:13confirming that he was, in fact, part of our organisation.
02:16That may be the most that Trek will see of Seven,
02:19and of course, the iconic Isis,
02:20but for the standalone show that effectively had very little to do with the Federation,
02:24Assignment Earth rises above its environment.
02:27Number 8.
02:28Cause and effect.
02:29A confession.
02:30As a younger person, this presenter watched this episode and thought,
02:33wow, they managed to save time and money here,
02:35repeating the act four times.
02:37I never claimed I was smart.
02:38Cause and effect is unique in the fact that first act and the final act
02:42are almost identical in structure,
02:43throw in the middle acts as well.
02:45The Enterprise is stuck in the rift,
02:46the Bozeman emerges,
02:48they impact,
02:49chaos and the bridge.
02:50Despite the new Soyuz class ship introduced here,
02:53itself a redress of the old Miranda class,
02:55this episode truly is a bottle show.
02:57Yet it worked perfectly,
02:58repeating the events just enough to invoke the sense of déjà vu in the viewer,
03:02allowing the audience to start to figure things out
03:04as the characters begin to understand things have gone wrong.
03:06There was almost a cheers reunion in this episode.
03:09Kelsey Grammer guest starred as Morgan Bateson,
03:11while just behind him stood a dark-haired officer.
03:14Perhaps this is something of an urban legend,
03:16but the theory is,
03:17is that it was originally supposed to be none other than Lieutenant Savick standing there.
03:20A role originated,
03:21of course,
03:21by Grammer's Cheers co-star,
03:23Kirstie Alley.
03:24Number seven,
03:25The Inner Light.
03:26Morgan Jendal must have smiled when this script made it to air.
03:29Here was a simple story about a probe,
03:31and a flute,
03:32and a bit of sunshine.
03:33What it became is one of the most impactful,
03:35emotional,
03:35and outstanding episodes of The Next Generation,
03:38even if the Enterprise-D only features in a small portion of it.
03:40Picard's encounter with the Catan Probe
03:42is one of those events that managed to stay with him long after the credits roll.
03:45In the 90s era of Star Trek,
03:47this was still quite a taboo thing to get away with.
03:49Even at the time,
03:50Picard's assimilation by the Borg was effectively dealt with
03:53in the best of both worlds and family,
03:55then it would take some time to rear its head again.
03:57This ended up being an experience that would cross over into the real world.
04:01As the tune that is played,
04:02featuring a guest performance by Daniel Stewart,
04:04Patrick's actual son,
04:05would go on to form the basis of the theme tune for Star Trek Picard.
04:09Number 6.
04:10Necessary Evil
04:11Moving now to Deep Space Nine,
04:13this second season episode was the first noir crime drama
04:16told in both present and flashback,
04:18given to the audience via snippets of Constable Odo's logs.
04:22It gave us some of our first views of Terok Noor,
04:24the terrifying ore processing station
04:26that would go on to become the eponymous Federation outpost.
04:29Odo's time as head of security under Gol T'Kat
04:31would be revisited again in such episodes as things past.
04:34But it is here that the hard-boiled nature of the changeling is truly on display.
04:38Coupled with this is his initial meeting with Kira Noorice,
04:42leading to the reveal of a hidden crime all those years later,
04:45something that affects both of them deeply.
04:46While the next generation and the original series had flirted with darkness,
04:50this felt like a mission statement for the new show.
04:52René Aubergine Noir is fantastic as the Carver-esque detective,
04:56trying to solve a murder across two time frames.
04:59It is perhaps a shame that it wasn't a genre that we spent more time in
05:03while the show was airing.
05:04But that also only serves to highlight the strength of its outing.
05:07Number 5. Far Beyond the Stars
05:09In a way, the inclusion of this episode is quite obvious.
05:13Here was Star Trek using not simply allegory,
05:15but a full-period drama to depict racial discrimination in America in the 50s.
05:19Though the original series debuted in the 60s,
05:22it bears remembering that it was born in times and situations like these.
05:25For example, not a visitor doubles as both Major Kira and K.C. Hunter here,
05:30the only female writer on staff at the magazine.
05:32Her name is given in initials only so that the readers won't discover that she is, in fact, a woman.
05:37There are certainly echoes here of D.C. Fontana,
05:40one of the main writers on the original series,
05:42as well as becoming the showrunner on the animated series.
05:44The bulk of the episode follows Avery Brooks as Benny Russell,
05:47the only black writer on staff,
05:49and the one who suffers the most from the racism of the day.
05:52Russell writes his story featuring a black captain,
05:54and not only is the magazine pulped for the run, but he is fired.
05:57The breakdown that Russell undergoes, played to perfection by Brooks,
06:00who was also on director duties, is harrowing.
06:03Star Trek had never shied from discussing issues of the day,
06:06and here was one of the most painful examples of real-world bigotry that had ever been shown,
06:11and Star Trek was never quite the same afterwards.
06:13Number 4.
06:14Coarse Oblivion
06:15The premise for Coarse Oblivion is a little silly.
06:18A ship full of goo people think they're the originals,
06:20then things quickly begin to fall apart.
06:22Literally.
06:23Some of the make-up effects can edge into the ridiculous during this episode,
06:26and some of the effects haven't aged very well.
06:28That being said,
06:29the episode offers one of the most crushing endings of any Voyager offerings,
06:32before or after.
06:34The episode follows this crew of not-Voyager as they go from celebrating the wedding of Paris and Torres,
06:39to desperately trying to reach a demon-class planet to regenerate.
06:42As the episode goes on,
06:44the audience discovers that they haven't been following the usual characters at all.
06:47These are all copies,
06:48born from the silvery blood on the demon planet a year before.
06:51It's a shock to say the least,
06:53but things become even more grim as crew members start dying.
06:57A new propulsion system,
06:58much faster than the original,
06:59has been irradiating them to such a degree that they are beginning to lose cohesion.
07:03That's not even the worst part.
07:05When it becomes clear that the ship may not survive,
07:07all of the crew's logs are downloaded into a probe,
07:10so that at least some of them can be left for others to discover.
07:13And then the probe is destroyed.
07:14And then the ship is destroyed,
07:15leaving nothing but a cloud of globules floating in space.
07:18It is, perhaps, one of the cruelest twists in Star Trek history,
07:22making this episode a standout example of a writer needing to be asked,
07:26who hurt you?
07:27Number 3, Pathfinder.
07:28On the surface, Pathfinder shares some similarities with Coarse Oblivion,
07:32in that the Voyager crew seen for the most part aren't actually the regular characters,
07:36but merely copies.
07:37This time, holograms.
07:38However, Pathfinder stands out for its use of Lieutenant Barclay and Deanna Troi.
07:42In a way, this episode of Voyager serves as something of a side episode of The Next Generation,
07:47post First Contact.
07:48Though Reg had appeared on Voyager before,
07:50this was his first big focus episode.
07:52We see him dashing through the standing sets slash holographic recreations of the ship,
07:57while the others at Starfleet Command are rapidly losing patience with him.
08:00Though Troi attempts to placate him and aid him to escape work for a while,
08:04the episode truly serves as an obsession,
08:06by a character from the previous Star Trek iteration attempting to meet his heroes.
08:10That ending, featuring some of the most affecting moments in Star Trek history,
08:14are both a true punch-the-air moment and a bursting-into-flood-of-tears moment as well.
08:18Janeway's last cry to Starfleet, asking them to keep a docking bay open for them,
08:22combined with Admiral Paris telling his son he loves him,
08:25breaks even the stoniest of hearts.
08:27For an episode that features the main cast for all five minutes,
08:30it's one of the most powerful standout episodes of the lot.
08:33Number 2, Kobayashi.
08:35Star Trek Prodigy offered, in its fifth season,
08:38something of a glorious treat for long-term fans of the franchise.
08:41Kobayashi sees the return of Gates McFadden,
08:44René Aubergenois,
08:45Nichelle Nichols,
08:46James Doohan,
08:47and Leonard Nimoy to Star Trek,
08:49despite almost all of them having passed away by the time this episode was released.
08:53In fact, writer Aaron Waltke revealed in an episode of the Clone Star podcast
08:56that when the episode was originally pitched,
08:58both René and Nichelle were still in the position to record new dialogue.
09:01However, the nature of the Hollywood machine delayed it sufficiently,
09:04and this never came to be.
09:05So, in a way, the episode becomes something of a scrapbook for fans.
09:10Stock dialogue was used for Odo, Uhura, Scotty, and Spock's dialogue.
09:13While recording technology had evolved somewhat by the 90s,
09:16there was very little to be done to make the recordings from the 60s
09:19sound as though they were fresh out of Dull's quips.
09:22Hours and hours of research were done to source the words,
09:24and having the recordings exist in their original form
09:27is now a sweet coda to some of their performances.
09:29We dare anyone not to get dewy-eyed
09:31hearing those giants of Trek speak one more time.
09:35Number 1.
09:36Subspace Rhapsody
09:37Star Trek finally went and did a musical episode.
09:40Love it or hate it,
09:41Subspace Rhapsody was a bold move on the part of the franchise.
09:44Of course, there have been musical moments in Trek before this,
09:47with the odd song here and there,
09:49or musical performances in the fourth intersect in Jeffree's Tube 25,
09:52but never before had a full-scale spectacular like this been attempted.
09:55It's an episode that works best when one gives oneself over to the sheer fun of events.
10:01Not every cast member will be taking home the Tony Award,
10:03while some of the dancing could do with a polish,
10:05but that actually adds to the awkwardness of the situation,
10:08something that shows only too well on the face of the beleaguered Captain Pike.
10:12Celia Rose Gooding is probably the strongest vocal performance in the episode,
10:15but for a cast who may not have been classically trained,
10:18they all give it their best,
10:19and the songs have been stuck in our heads for weeks now.
10:22After 57 years, Star Trek is taking chances and boldly going to places it has never travelled before.
10:28That, in our opinion, is why it manages to stay unique.
10:31And that was the 10 most unique Star Trek episodes.
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10:43You can find us on Twitter at TrekCulture and on Instagram at TrekCultureYT.
10:46You can also find myself and Sean Farrick on the TrekCulture podcast on various podcast apps.
10:51If you're interested in what I'm up to, which includes writing a self-published gothic fantasy novel series,
10:56then follow me on Twitter at TomCFinn and on various other socials as well.
11:00Thanks for watching, and until next time, bye-bye.