best star trek pilot

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Star Trek Pilots Ranked From Worst to Best: From The Original Series to Strange New Worlds

There have been a whopping twelve different pilots for various Star Trek series through the decades, and we rank them all, from The Original Series' false start all the way through the modern days of Discovery and Strange New Worlds!

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What is the best Star Trek pilot? We aren’t asking “what is the best Star Trek series” (at least not yet). Star Trek pilots rarely sell what the series delivers, with plenty of shows taking two or three years to evolve into the eventual classics they become, while other promising starts quickly fumble the ball.

Instead, we are looking at the pilot episodes themselves, and how they stand on their own merits. This ranking includes every pilot episode ever produced, including both pilots for The Original Series, “The Cage” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (although the nerdiest among you will notice we excluded the first Star Trek episode to actually air , “The Man Trap”, because as the sixth episode produced it really stretches the definition of “pilot,” and while a case could be made that “The Corbomite Maneuver” is the first episode of the show that truly felt like Trek, by then it wasn’t in the pilot stages).

Of the twelve Star Trek pilots we have counted in this ranking, eight of them feature a ship called “Enterprise” (and half of those are the Enterprise NCC-1701), four of them feature Mr. Spock (five if you include appearances from his immediate family), and three of them feature Captain Picard. Finally, a whopping five of them feature the crew encountering an entity with mysterious God-like powers.

Now, to rank these episodes we have asked each of our Den of Geek Star Trek Brain Trust to provide their own rankings, before scientifically collating them to produce a list so accurate, so precise, so objectively correct that nobody could ever disagree with it. Don’t even bother going to the comments, all they will say is “Yes. I agree with this.”

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12. Star Trek: Discovery – “The Vulcan Hello”/“Battle of the Binary Stars”

Whatever else you think of them, Star Trek: Discovery ‘s “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle of the Binary Stars”, provide the most polished and well-produced pilot episodes that the franchise had seen until that point. But they also broke rules. Instead of introducing a hero ship, a crew, an obstacle for them to overcome and the promise of more adventures to follow, the plot revolved around one protagonist who was not even the Captain, and we don’t even get to see the ship.

That’s forgivable, brave even, but Trek is also a show about teams working together, so when that protagonist launches a mutiny (an act her brother is so embarrassed by that when he is asked if there has ever been a mutiny on a Federation ship, he only says there is “Absolutely no record of such an occurrence”), gets her Captain killed and ends up in jail, viewers are understandably skeptical.

11. Star Trek: The Animated Series – “Beyond the Farthest Star”

There remains controversy over whether this series is even canon, although it had the same cast and writing team as the live action series. So to save time – Lower Decks features a giant Spock skeleton and a Kzinti crewman, and a Pandronian . It counts.

Despite those common elements, Star Trek: The Animated Series was a completely different ballgame to The Original Series , with wildly imaginative settings and aliens far beyond even the current live-action series, but half the run-time and a cast with only three facial expressions and about six animated actions each.

“Beyond the Farthest Star” was the first episode of the series to air and it gives the crew of the Enterprise a mystery to solve with an epically-sized alien ship, its unknown alien crew wiped out by a mysterious threat. It has brilliant designs and writing that is unmistakably Trek. It deserves its place in the pantheon, but modern viewers will still have a challenge getting past the animation quality.

10. Star Trek: Enterprise – “Broken Bow”

These days, the idea of a Star Trek prequel feels pretty commonplace. But, in 2001, Enterprise boldly attempted the impossible: Do a soft reboot of the entire franchise, set a century before The Original Series . Because an early scene features a Klingon getting blasted with a shotgun by a farmer in a cornfield, the overall vibe of Enterprise was very clear: This show was trying to bring Star Trek back down to Earth. The attempt at casual realism in Enterprise mostly backfired. While Captain Archer’s NX-01 baseball cap was pretty fly, the rest of the tech seemed like it was a couple of decades ahead of Kirk and Spock, rather than a century behind. 

That said if you think of Enterprise as the retroactive beginning of the newer canon which was continued by Discovery , and now, Strange New Worlds , it works perfectly. “Broken Bow” is also a solid Star Trek pilot episode, setting up a big idea for the entire series (the Temporal Cold War) while establishing all the characters quickly, and making us like everyone instantly. In many ways “Broken Bow,” is better than the rest of the show’s first season, but isn’t the worst introduction to the Star Trek canon as a whole.

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Because Enterprise is still the furthest point in the past of the Trek canon — including the reboot movies — “Broken Bow” has become more and more foundational as time goes on. You’ve got Klingons, a ticking clock, a little ship named Enterprise , and a last-minute “beam me up” escape. What more do you want?

9. Star Trek: The Next Generation – “Encounter at Farpoint”

Oh “Farpoint,” you grand, ambitious, beautiful doofus, you. Has there ever been anything, before or since, that is more Star Trek than this episode? Yet, it is also a demonstration that Star Trek is a spirit in need of a mixer.

Let’s be honest, a lot of this episode is pretty rough, with painful dialogue and agonizing pacing. Anyone who complains about the Enterprise fly-by in Star Trek: The Motion Picture hasn’t seen Farpoint’s saucer separation sequence.

The ingredients of the Star Trek: The Next Generation we know and love are here but they have a long way to go. Patrick Stewart is still figuring Picard out, playing him as grumpy old man who just wants to give the galaxy a good telling-off. Wesley Crusher instantly earns a generation’s internet hatred. But the episode’s saving grace is John de Lancie as Q, who immediately realizes the only thing that can save this pilot is oodles of camp.

8. Lower Decks – “Second Contact”

From its first episode, Star Trek: Lower Decks proved many of the naysayers wrong. As a mosaic of every Star Trek series, ever, Lower Decks is the one series more inclined to remind you why you like Star Trek more than any other. But, its pilot, “Second Contact,” is a breezily efficient introduction to this low-stakes iteration of Trek. We’ve all heard about making first contact with aliens, but what happens after that? Who goes back and gets the aliens used to being part of the Federation? 

The pilot episode of Lower Decks answers that question hilariously and brilliantly. Come for the introduction of Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford, but stay for the deep cuts about Gary Mitchell . If someone wanted to learn about Star Trek without watching other Star Trek, the pilot of Lower Decks is here to say, that’s just fine. And we’re gonna have a lot of fun along the way.

7. Picard – “Remembrance”

After Discovery , it didn’t seem possible that another Star Trek debut episode could stir up more controversy. And yet, somehow, the debut of Picard did just that. That said, for all you Picard haters out there, “Remembrance” is much better than some might say, and really only has one flaw: Its second part, “Maps and Legends,” should have been aired as one episode. In fact, the first three episodes of Picard , all directed by Hanelle Culpepper, feel like the true pilot for the series. Because “Remembrance” ends with the death of Dahj (Isa Briones) it feels incomplete, but if you consider “Maps and Legends” to be part of the pilot, the whole thing feels more complete.

The biggest criticism of Picard , by and large, is that fans felt that the series has been too dark to be part of the legacy of The Next Generation . But, when you consider that Picard was always poised to be the Star Trek version of Logan , “Remembrance” does exactly what the series is trying to attempt; make a grounded, more realistic sequel to TNG , in which everything is not what it seems. Plus, everyone knows the best Picard moments in TNG involved Jean-Luc losing his temper, and this episode has plenty of that. Jean-Luc might drink his Earl Grey decaf in “Remembrance,” but that’s also the point.

6. Prodigy – “Lost & Found”

Like Discovery , Prodigy ’s pilot also breaks a lot of rules. Aside from a couple of fan-pleasing continuity deep cuts it doesn’t remotely feel like Star Trek. But then, what does the Star Trek universe feel like outside of the warm light of the Federation? The answer, basically, is Star Wars. It doesn’t hurt that Prodigy is beautifully animated, and is light years beyond what that other Star-franchise has managed to pull off in this format.

But that is the trick Prodigy pulls. Trek always started from the Federation and ventured outwards, but in Prodigy the Federation is the unknown, and its characters learn about that world at the same time its much younger audience does.

For everything that is different on the surface, the bones of Star Trek are here. There is something very Trek about the universal translator turning on and transforming a rock monster into a shy little girl. As the series continues, Prodigy becomes more and more obviously a Star Trek show , but this pilot shows it already understands the assignment.

5. Voyager – “Caretaker”

“Caretaker” was the third Star Trek pilot created by this production team in the space of eight years, and that is where all the episode’s strengths and flaws lie. This episode feels like a sizzle real of what you want from Star Trek, while admittedly starting to show the limitations of its ’90s form.

Encounter a bizarre alien trader in space? Check. Mysterious abduction to a place that looks oddly like historical Earth? Check. Away mission to a desert planet? Yep. Underground alien city? We got you. Super-advanced alien who has evolved into a sort of CGI jelly mold? You got it.

Yes, the Kazon are little more than rubbish-looking Klingons and the Maquis aren’t quite the loophole past Rodenberry’s “no conflict” rule that they’re supposed to be. To a certain extent it feels a bit by-the-numbers, but it hits all of those numbers with absolute confidence and polish , and only TOS and DS9 have so effectively and efficiently introduced its new cast and characters.

4. The Original Series – “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

The difference between “The Cage” and “Where No Man Goes Before” is in the opening shot. “The Cage” starts in space, and zooms in to look down on the crew in the bridge, “Where No Man Goes Before” starts in space, then pulls out to reveal it is on a monitor in the ship’s rec room.

Star Trek , proper, begins with Kirk and Spock playing 3D chess, establishing the “humanity vs. logic” conflict that is the heart of The Original Series , if not Star Trek itself. When we do see the bridge it is not from the ceiling, but through the turbo lift doors.

Sci-fi writer Charlie Jane Anders has even argued this episode is Kirk’s origin story , as he struggles to choose between the coldly logical, but unerringly practical Spock, or his more fun but douchey best friend, Gary Mitchell, before Kirk ultimately follows Spock’s advice to save the day and become the Captain he needs to be.

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“The Cage” (more on that in a minute) brought proper, adult science fiction to serialized TV, but “Where No Man Goes Before” grounded it in human relationships.

3. Strange New Worlds, “Strange New Worlds”

This could have been the best pilot. Like “Encounter at Farpoint” it is a pure Star Trek story, so much so that you spend a lot of the episode feeling like you have seen this story before even though you never have. Like “Where No Man Goes Before” it understands that the show will live or die by its characters and their relationships.

It introduces the Enterprise as a familiar, lived-in ship and delivers a simple, self-contained plot that shamelessly steals from The Day the Earth Stood Still and adds some added Prime Directive-flavored frosting. It gets the wonder of exploration, the camaraderie of the crew, the way that humanity has advanced to become something better than it is and the terrible things that befell it before it was able to.

The only place it falls down is that for some reason it feels like it has to tie into Discovery , shoehorning in mentions to a convoluted, season-long arc that new viewers are unfamiliar with and old ones are well over.

But even with that, “Strange New Worlds” is a nearly perfect piece of Trek .

2. Deep Space Nine – “Emissary”

Without a doubt, a masterful series premiere, the only fault of “Emissary,” is that it slightly misrepresents what Star Trek: Deep Space Nine eventually became by its seventh season. Still, in terms of tonal consistency, DS9 is remarkable in that its pilot episode is honored throughout the show with very few plot threads left abandoned.

As a series that was essentially a spinoff/sequel to The Next Generation , “Emissary” ran the risk of being way too in-the-weeds for a casual viewer, right from the first scene. Because the very first scene began inside the most famous TNG episode ever, “The Best of Both Worlds,” DS9 demanded a degree of Trek literacy immediately. And yet, the paradox of “Emissary,” is that it’s so well written that all of these continuity barriers vanish right away.

Most of this is a credit to the brilliant casting. Avery Brooks carries the episode as Benjamin Sisko, who, as we learn, doesn’t want this job, and doesn’t care for Jean-Luc Picard, either. This choice was brilliant and set DS9 apart not just from TNG , but from the basic idea of what Trek was supposed to be. It was okay for people to disagree. It was okay for Sisko to change his mind, and everything we thought we knew about the Star Trek galaxy was blown wide open by a wormhole. From Odo to Kira to Dax, Bashir, O’Brien, and Quark, the new characters are introduced quickly, but thoughtfully. In all the Trek shows, you’re never more excited for the next episode than you are after the debut of Deep Space Nine .

1. The Original Series, “The Cage”

So here we are. Possibly the only pilot episode credited with being the pilot for two individual TV shows ( Star Trek and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ) as well as launching the entire 11 TV series, 13 movie franchise.

It’s the original, but is it really the best?

“The Cage” is a strange watch today. Everything is grittier than we are used to in Star Trek, the colors are washed out, the Captain is weighed down by trauma and duty, and the biggest smile we see in the episode is probably cracked by Spock.

But from the start “The Cage” expertly sets out Star Trek ’s primary mission, one the franchise has occasionally forgotten: To bring big, thoughtful, hefty science fiction ideas to a mainstream TV audience.

The other thing it captures that perhaps Trek has lost over the decades, is its sheer weirdness .

The psychedelic angles, lighting, and music are all extremely ’60s, but also unworldly and strange in a way that Star Trek should maybe strive for again.

It is telling that when we see the Talosians again in Discovery , they have lost their androgyny to become more obviously gendered, their huge veiny craniums replaced with a more Voyager -esque ridged forehead, and the weird splashes of color replaced with a very uniform-looking blue light.

With its singing plants and alien palaces, “The Cage” leaves viewers in no doubt that this is a strange and heavily-populated universe, far more so than the automated mineral processing plant on a lifeless moon we see in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

While the Enterprise crew here are perhaps a bit more sterile than we are used to, “The Cage” introduces us to a universe we immediately long to explore, which is probably why we have done so for nearly 60 years.

What are your favorite Star Trek pilots? Let us know in the comments!

Ranking Star Trek Pilots From Every Series Worst To Best

Star Trek has had 10 pilot episodes to date - where does your favourite rank?

Ranking the various pilots of Star Trek is tricky, and it is also something that now has to be done with slightly more regularity. Alex Kurtzman, we thank you for the content! However, what does one define as a pilot episode?

Does The Man Trap count, as it was broadcast first?

Does Runaway fit in, or do we count Short Treks as part of their respective series? (Arguably, Q&A or Ask Not could be seen as pilots for Strange New Worlds).

In the end, this article focuses on the main televised series and their pilots. A future list may expand out, but for now, Where No Man Has Gone Before will be the pilot in question for James R. Kirk (although in that same logic, perhaps The Man Trap really is the pilot for James T. Kirk....)

Ranking the newer pilots against the older ones may seem somewhat unfair. There is no competition when one compares the stunning visuals of The Vulcan Hello against the....less....stunning visuals of The Cage. And yet, it is surprisingly easy to compare them all to each other because, for all of the arguing online - they are all Star Trek, and they all do their job well!

10. The Captain Is The Most English Frenchman Ever, And The Pilot Is Blind - What Could Go Wrong?

With the success of the movies kicking Star Trek back into warp speed, it was time for the franchise to return to its roots. Star Trek The Next Generation was conceived as a continuation of the show and to say that it was met, initially, with lukewarm reactions is underselling it.

The Original Cast were not entirely on board to begin with. George Takei, James Doohan and even Deforest Kelley (the seemingly nicest man who ever lived) were not thrilled to hear that they were being replaced in the eyes of Trekkies everywhere. Kelley was the first to come around, appearing in the pilot in one of the most heartwarming scenes of The Next Generation's seven year run.

The rest of the cast also eventually came around, though Encounter at Farpoint is rarely voted by fans as the best episode of the show. While there is a lot to like - both the visuals and the introduction of Q serve as highlights to the premiere - it suffered from that common ailment of not knowing quite what it was as it came out the door.

Although, it's safe to say that, as time went on - The Next Generation did kind of ok!

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick

Every Star Trek Pilot Episode, Ranked From Worst To Best

By Valerie Complex on October 20, 2017 at 10:12AM PDT

GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links.

With advancements in special effects and bigger television budgets, the Star Trek series has evolved with the times to create a show that is fitting for every era. While some shows hold up and still entertain today, others aren't as good as the very first time you saw them.

With Star Trek: Discovery premiering tonight, it's only fitting that we rank every Star Trek pilot episode from worst to best. Keep in mind, this is not the same as ranking the series as a whole. That is a completely different list. Here, we’re just talking about the first episode of each show.

Disclosure: GameSpot's parent company is Star Trek: Discovery producer CBS Interactive.

7. Star Trek (Original Series)

Pilot Episode: "The Cage"

Under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), the USS Enterprise receives a radio distress call from a strange planet in the Talos star group. A landing party is assembled to investigate the signal and is then beamed down to find the source. Upon finding the signal source, the crew discovers a camp of survivors from a scientific expedition that went missing 18 years prior. Among the survivors is Vina, a beautiful young woman who Captain Pike is instantly drawn to. Unfortunately, Vina isn't all she appears to be, and in Pike’s hypnotized state (hypnotized by her beauty), he is captured by an alien race that lives beneath the surface.

Where does it rank? The original pilot ranks the lowest of the low because Captain Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter) is devoid of emotion and sucks the life out of the dialogue. Frankly, it's insufferable. The production is improved by the second pilot which corrects casting missteps by adding the charismatic and charming William Shatner.

6. Star Trek: The Animated Series

Pilot Episode: "Beyond the Farthest Star"

While exploring the galaxy, the Federation Starship Enterprise becomes trapped in the orbit of a dead star. The crew discovers there is a massive derelict ship floating around this unknown star. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) beams aboard the starship with a boarding party that includes First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, and Chief Engineer Scott, where they learn the star was once home to an insectoid race. From there, it's a race against time to get back to the Enterprise before the rogue ship self destructs.

Where does it rank? The pilot ranks low, but I give it props for incorporating elements of the live-action show into the animated series. The original voice cast is there, and they do the best they can, but the dialogue and animation make it a hard task to sit through.

5. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Pilot Episode: "Encounter at FarPoint"

In 2364, the new crew of Starfleet's USS Enterprise gets right into the action against Q, an omniscient figure from the Q Continuum. Q is sent to test the intelligence and the endurance of the new starfleet group. Captain Jean Luc-Picard (Patrick Stewart) is confident in his ability to lead his crew on this mission, but it isn't an easy task. Q declares that humanity is being put on trial--and deciding that their actions in the upcoming mission will be used to judge humanity’s worthiness and determine their fate as a race.

Where does it rank? "Encounter at Farpoint" ranks low due to camp overload. It's as if Roddenberry was trying too hard to recreate the original series instead of giving this its own identity. The dialogue is laughably awkward, even for Star Trek.

4. Star Trek Enterprise

Pilot Episode: "Broken Bow"

We see a young Jonathan Archer on Earth in the year 2121 watching his father paint a model space craft. His father is chief principal designer of the planet's first Warp 5 engine ship. Fast forward to the year 2151, and Jonathan Archer is soon to be Captain of the Enterprise NX-01. However, test flights and missions are met with opposition from Vulcans. Breaking the chain of command, Archer goes straight to Admiral Forrest to request permission to take the new ship on a mission to the planet Qo'noS.

Where does it rank? Broken Bow ranks middle-of-the-road because it's interesting in some aspects (like taking place in the past), but it moves entirely too slowly to hold much interest. Watching more than the first episode of this series is required to truly get into the show.

3. Star Trek: Voyager

Pilot Episode: "Caretaker"

On Earth, Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship USS Voyager recruits Tim Paris, a Maquis from a maximum security prison to help track down a missing Maquis spacecraft. Leaving the Deep Space Nine space station, Voyager journeys to the Badlands, where it is scanned by a "coherent tetryon beam" before being struck by a wave that places Janeway and her crew 70,000 light years away from the federation and scrambling to find a way back.

Where does it rank? Voyager ranks high because it continued to break free of the tropes Roddenberry established in this universe. Being so far from the nearest station, Captain Janeway must rely on her crew and her wits to get them safely back to the federation--thus leaving her in the "caretaker" role.

2. Star Trek: Deep Space 9

Pilot Episode: "Emissary"

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) finds Captain Picard passing the torch (of sorts) to Captain Benjamin Sisko, who is now in charge of the crew at the Deep Space 9 outpost station. The Bajor requested protection from a Starfleet command after the Cardassian war. However, the discovery of an unexplored wormhole near the space station expands Sisko's mission beyond protecting the Bajor. This pilot episode is action-packed, and what better way to introduce your characters then to see them in action?

Where does it rank? Deep Space 9’s pilot episode ranks high on the list because it's the start of the series finding a new identity. It's diverse, well written, and not afraid to show the flaws in its crew early on. Upon multiple viewings, this show still holds up nicely in terms of action and production value.

1. Star Trek: Discovery

Pilot Episode: "The Vulcan Hello"

Discovery is set 10 years before the original series and is a precursor to the Klingon war. At this time, the Klingon houses were divided, but they soon joined forces to fight against the Federation. Captain Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh), First Officer Burnham (Soniqua Martin Green), and the rest of the crew of the USS Shenzou were on a mission investigating a remote part of space. They find hostile Klingon forces, which they engage in battle.

Where does it rank? I can't give too much away, but Discovery is high on the list for going against the typical structure of Star Trek. The show is told from the perspective of First Officer Michael Burnham, and not the ship’s Captain. She is also a human with a vast amount of Vulcan knowledge because she was raised by Vulcans. That's just brilliant.

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The 20 Best Episodes of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’

If you’re looking to get into the ‘Trek’ that started it all, start here.

In the more than 50 years since Star Trek made its debut on NBC, the franchise has seen more than a dozen feature films and successfully launched its sixth spinoff series last year with CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery . For all the many amazing stories told in the decades to come, it’s hard to beat the original Star Trek . Running for just three seasons, the series has become synonymous with the science fiction genre and emerged a cultural touchstone that has entertained, educated and inspired dreamers all over the world.

Like any series, Star Trek has its ups and downs. The best episodes, though, rank among television’s very finest. We’ve assembled a list of Star Trek ’s 20 best original series episodes, each of which has withstood the test of time in delivering stories that, despite their spectacle and imagination, are ultimately about exploring the human condition. As such, many of the themes explored on Gene Roddenberry ’s show have only become more relevant and the show’s 23 rd century setting all the more important a future to which we might aspire.

20) The Menagerie - Parts One and Two

The only two-part episode of the original Star Trek , “The Menagerie” is, in a weird way, a kind of clip show. Before William Shatner was cast as Captain James T. Kirk, Star Trek had shot a pilot, “The Cage,” starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike. In fact, the only character to carry over from the unaired pilot was Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. Naturally, he’s front and center of “The Menagerie,” a Starfleet courtroom drama in which Enterprise logs are used as evidence, allowing the entirety of “The Cage” to be incorporated into a larger story set some years later.

Hunter did not reprise the Pike role, the episode finding the character having just suffered an accident that has left him a scarred shell of his former self. With a mysterious motivation that is revealed through the course of his trial, Spock abducts Pike and commandeers the Enterprise. With a course locked to a forbidden planet, Spock calmly turns himself over for his court martial, giving the narrative a fantastic ticking clock.

“The Menagerie” arrived midway through Star Trek’s first season and its expansion of Star Trek lore is, in part, why the franchise continues to this day. Bringing “The Cage” (released some years later on its own) into Star Trek continuity paved the way for future Captains of the Enterprise and reminded us that Star Trek’s timeline doesn’t necessarily need to proceed linearly.

Anyone familiar with Star Trek from the J.J. Abrams films also got to meet Captain Pike. Bruce Greenwood played the part in both 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness .

19) The Corbomite Maneuver

Although it aired out of sequence, “The Corbomite Maneuever” followed Star Trek ’s first two pilots with a story that sees the Enterprise coming into contact with a mysterious and powerful alien sphere in an unexplored area of space. Diplomacy soon fails and a strange looking creature, Balok, tells Kirk that his ship will be destroyed. That’s when Kirk comes up with an epic bluff, aiming to convince the alien that the Enterprise contains a made up element, corbomite, that promises mutually assured destruction.

The notion of bluffing is huge in Star Trek and “The Corbomite Manuever” is the most classic example. A bluff, after all, means applying fiction to create a better reality. In a nutshell, that’s exactly what Star Trek is all about. Over the course of the series, the crew of the Enterprise will use their unique perspective to defy the laws of alien civilizations, Starfleet’s own bureaucracy and even of physics themselves. It’s usually about knowing the right time to do the wrong thing and, of that, Captain Kirk is a proven master. He knows exactly when to bend the rules to achieve the greater good.

“The Corbomite Maneuver” also introduces a common theme that alien races aren’t necessarily as alien as they might appear with a final act that features a young Clint Howard .

18) A Piece of the Action

It may sound a bit silly, but the Enterprise’s visit to a planet ruled by 1920’s Chicago gangsters is a whole lot of fun. It even makes a bit more sense than it sounds: a hundred years before this episode takes place, another ship, the Horizon, wound up bringing a book about Chicago mobsters to the planet’s highly suggestible inhabitants, the Iotians. Treating it like a bible, the entire culture adapted to suit the book.

There’s a lot of costume play throughout Star Trek history and seeing Kirk and Spock in gangster outfits is a whole lot more fun than say, the time they have to dress up the Nazis in the second season episode “Patterns of Force”. “A Piece of the Action” would serve as a prototype for Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s holodeck episodes and open the idea that any planet anywhere in the universe could theoretically have a culture identical to any period on Earth.

An abandoned plotline for a 30 th anniversary episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (later told in alternate form in a Star Trek comic) would have seen a return to the Iotian planet and the reveal that, following the events of “A Piece of the Action,” the planet wound up being so heavily influenced by the Enterprise’s visit that it had evolved to become, essentially, a planet of classic Star Trek fans.

17) The Squire of Gothos

Several episodes of the original Star Trek find the crew coming face to face with seemingly omnipotent foes, but few are as quite as memorable as William Campbell ’s performance as the ebullient mischief maker Trelane, self-professed “Squire of Gothos”. When the Enterprise discovers a planet in an area of space that should be abandoned, the crew is drawn to the world’s sole inhabitant, a godlike individual fascinated with 18 th century Earth history who views the crew as nothing more than his playthings.

From Loki of Greek mythology to DC Comics’ Mr. Mxyzptlk, the trickster god is a classic foe. Part of what makes it work so well in the world of Star Trek is because the crew of the Enterprise, to us, appears so advanced technologically. As was the case with foes like Thor or Superman, having an even more powerful foes forces the heroes to rely on their wits alone, ultimately proving that omnipotence is nothing without intelligence and compassion.

Trelane also helped pave the way for John DeLancie ’s Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation . Appearing in more than a dozen episodes of subsequent Star Trek series, Q shares Trelane’s paradoxical blend affability and obnoxiousness. While it’s never specified in the canon, stories told in Star Trek books and comics have connected the characters.

16) Day of the Dove

The Enterprise responds to a distress call only to find a deserted planet and Klingon forces nearby. When both ships somehow become disabled, tensions begin to mount to an unusual degree. Walter Koenig ’s Chekov is threatening to avenge the death of his brother at the Klingons’ hands. But then it’s revealed that he doesn’t even have a brother. Things get weirder and weirder as the planet itself seems to encourage conflict, supplying weapons and easy reasons to give into hatred.

It’s never revealed exactly what the force is that both crews encounter on planet Beta XII-A, but it seems to be a destructive energy that is, perhaps, a manifestation of destructive energy itself, depicted as a crackling red force. When Kirk realizes that he and Michael Ansara ’s Klingon commander Kang are being manipulated, “Day of the Dove” gives us one of William Shatner ’s great mini-monologues.

“All right. All right,” Kirk shouts at Kang. “In the heart. In the head. I won't stay dead. Next time I'll do the same to you. I'll kill you. And it goes on, the good old game of war, pawn against pawn! Stopping the bad guys. While somewhere, something sits back and laughs and starts it all over again.”

That’s a message that, sadly, is every bit as timely today as it was half a century ago.

15) The Galileo Seven

Things go bad during a routine science mission, forcing a shuttlecraft, the Galileo, to make an emergency landing on a dangerous planet, home to enormous apelike beasts. What’s more, a coming ion storm and trouble in another part of the galaxy mean that the Enterprise may need to give up the search.

While there’s some great Kirk moments as he squeezes every possible opportunity from the chain of command to keep looking for the Galileo, this episode is Spock’s show. We get to see him take command over a six-person crew and deal with having to give orders that put officers in mortal danger. Fear amongst the crew makes things all the more dangerous as Spock has to face officers who question his Vulcan logic and, ultimately, his own uncertainty in command to save the crew.

The plot for “The Galileo Seven” originated with Oliver Crawford , who co-wrote the episode’s script with S. Bar-David . He has said that “The Galileo Seven” was directly inspired by the 1939 big screen thriller Five Came Back , about a small airplane that crashed in a South American jungle.

14) A Private Little War

Star Trek was offering a direct allegorical take on the Vietnam War in 1968 with a story that finds Captain Kirk in a moral dilemma. A planet of immense natural resources, Neural, is home to a primitive race. Although Starfleet’s Prime Directive would normally preclude any interference, the Enterprise learns that conflict has broken out among the natives with one side being given advanced weaponry by the Klingon Empire.

While the Enterprise quite often finds itself in the position of having to balance moral imperatives, “A Private Little War” is the best example of the show taking on a contemporary political issue, even if the conclusion doesn’t offer any easy answers.

“A Private Little War” also introduces a memorable Star Trek alien that only appears in this one episode. The Mugato is a ferocious white ape with a spiked back and a poisonous bite. Ben Stiller , a big Star Trek fan, borrowed the name for Will Ferrell ’s character in his 2001 comedy Zoolander .

13) Journey to Babel

The Enterprise is journeying to the planet Babel for a diplomatic conference when one of the visiting ambassadors is murdered. The lineup of suspects includes a wide range of alien dignitaries and one chief suspect: Mark Lenard ’s Vulcan ambassador Sarek. Adding to the drama, Sarek just happens to be Spock’s estranged father.

Not only is “Journey to Babel” an interesting mystery with a grand assembly of interesting alien species, it reveals so much about Spock and his history with his father. It’s a relationship that continues to develop for decades after “Journey to Babel”. Lenard returns as Sarek throughout the franchise’s big screen run and beyond. He’s even set to be a featured character in Star Trek: Discovery with James Frain filling in for the late Lenard.

Before he played Sarek, Mark Lenard famously took on the role of another prominent Star Trek character. Look for details on that performance a bit further down this list.

12) Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

The Enterprise intercepts a stolen shuttlecraft containing Lou Antonio’s Lokai, a fugitive from a planet called Charon. Although he looks like a human being, Lokai is split down the middle, one side black and the other white. It’s not long before Frank Gorshin shows up as Bele, a fellow being from Charon who utterly despises Lokai. Although they may initially appear identical, it is revealed that Bele and Lokai are alternately colored. Bele is black on the left side and white on the right while Lokai is the reverse. Hence, in their culture, their hatred for one another.

With “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” Star Trek finds a way to tell a story that isn’t just about racism, but that makes racism itself the focal point for its sci-fi lens, imagining a brand new way to hate and making a powerful reminder that any reason for doing so based on any other physical attribute is just as unnatural.

11) The Doomsday Machine

The crew of the Enterprise faces one of its most awesome cosmic challenges when it comes up against a massive, world-eating device of extreme alien origin. In fact, the device is so alien that we never really learn what it is, although Kirk theorizes it to be an ancient doomsday device. The Enterprise isn’t the first Starfleet ship on the scene this time, either. By the time the Enterprise discovers the danger to the galaxy, the USS Constellation has already risked everything in an attempt to stop the planet killer. The Constellation is recovered by the Enterprise with only one crewmember still left alive, William Windom ’s Commodore Matt Decker.

Not only does “The Doomsday Machine” feature such a memorable monster, it features some great drama between Kirk and Decker. Having just lost his crew to the cosmic goliath, the Commodore is suffering from severe posttraumatic stress and not necessarily thinking with a clear head. Because he technically outranks Kirk, that poses a serious problem in dealing with the matter at hand.

“The Doomsday Machine” also sets up a nice bit of continuity with Star Trek: The Motion Picture . One of the main characters in the 1979 Robert Wise film is Stephen Collins ’ Captain Willard Decker, the son of Commodore Matt Decker.

10) The Devil in the Dark

Something is killing workers on distant a mining colony visited by the Enterprise. Deep in the caves of Janus VI, a rocklike creature is melting people alive with its molten abilities. Despite the attacks, though, there’s no trace of the creature and no understanding for how a carbon based life form could exist in such an environment.

“The Devil in the Dark” functions as both a sci-fi slasher and a moral tale. The end of the episode reveals that life sometimes manifests itself in forms that we may not have ever considered, brought to life visually when Spock performs a Vulcan mind-meld with the alien creature, a horta, and learns that its motivations are not malicious and that, instead, it is the miners who have unwittingly done a great wrong to it.

Although the horta marks another iconic Star Trek alien, “The Devil in the Dark” is their sole appearance of the species the franchise outside of very minor nods in later spinoffs.

9) By Any Other Name

The Enterprise encounters a pair of scouts from the Kelvan Empire, mighty beings from the Andromeda Galaxy who want to use the Starfleet vessel on a generational voyage to their homeworld. Armed with powerful belts that can, among other things, transform people into easily destroyed little polyhedrons of their basic genetic makeup, they easily take the ship. Only a few officers are left in their human form and it’s humanity that, as it often does, gives the Enterprise crew their edge. Because the Kelvans have taken human form for their journey, they’re not used to some of the finer points of being human.

“By Any Other Name” has James Doohan ’s Scotty teaching the male Kelvan about alcohol while Kirk teaches the female one about love. There’s a major degree to which Star Trek celebrates the clash of human and alien cultures and here we get to see the whole crew doing so to the best of their specific abilities.

The work of William Shakespeare is something referenced quite a bit throughout the Star Trek franchise. This episode references a line in Romeo and Juliet wherein Juliet argues that a rose is a rose because of the form it takes and not what it’s called.  Star Trek expands that idea with the suggestion that anything in the form of mankind will, in doing so, become mankind.

8) A Taste of Armageddon

“A Taste of Armageddon” offers a brilliantly high concept sci-fi plot: the Enterprise visits a world that has evolved beyond destructive combat, but not beyond war itself. Instead of destroying one another with weapons that would threaten to also destroy their culture, the conflicting sides of Eminiar VII’s population have agreed to wage war through a highly accurate simulation. If a resident is in an area that the simulation has deemed destroyed, he or she is expected to immediately turn themselves in for disintegration. Unfortunately, a few Enterprise crewmembers are unwittingly present when a building is marked destroyed and their refusal to surrender their lives could mean that a more destructive form of war returns to the planet.

Most of the time, the crew of the Enterprise comes across planets whose values aren’t quite up to date with those held by the enlightened Starfleet. Here, though, the crew is forced to deal with a planet that actually makes a pretty good point and achieved what seems to be far less destructive form of combat. Kirk makes an interesting argument, however, suggesting that the people of Eminiar VII have, in attempting to mute the destructive effects of war, helped mute the horror of it as well. By the time the credits roll on “A Taste of Armageddon,” you won’t be wrong if you’re not exactly thinking of Starfleet as the good guys this time.

7) Space Seed

“Space Seed” introduced Star Tre k’s most famous antagonist, Ricardo Montalban ’s genetically enhanced 20 th century superman Khan Noonien Singh. The Enterprise comes across a long-lost vessel, the Botany Bay, that contains Khan and 84 of his crew. Soon, Khan is using his enhanced cunning to take control of the Enterprise.

One of the reasons Khan works so well as a foil for Kirk is because he’s both physically and mentally superior to the Starfleet Captain, but also shares Kirk’s charisma. He’s an easy bad guy to root for and his backstory raises some interesting questions about what Earth’s Eugenics Wars were like in the 1990s.

While “Space Seed” is Khan’s sole appearance in the series, Montalban would famously reprise the role for Nicholas Meyer ’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982. Benedict Cumberbatch would then play an alternate reality version of the character in Star Trek Into Darkness .

The Enterprise comes into territorial conflict with the Gorn, a race of reptilian creatures with whom Starfleet has never dealt. When conflict threatens to breaks out with the Gorn ship, both vessels are disabled an incredibly powerful race called the Metrons. To settle the issue, the Metrons will have Captain Kirk face off against the Gorn captain on a rocky desert planet. Even though the Gorn easily outmatches the Starfleet Captain physically, Kirk has a few tricks up his sleeve.

As with “A Taste of Armageddon,” “Arena” focuses on a transference of a larger conflict into a smaller one. While the former dealt a bit more with the ethics in doing so, “Arena” places more like a sporting event. On the bridge of the Enterprise, the crew is helpless to do anything but watch as Kirk and the Gorn captain battle to the death.

“Arena” has become one Star Trek’s most famous episodes primarily due to its incredible Gorn costume. While it has a degree of 60s sci-fi cheese, it still looks quite a bit better than attempts to later bring back the Gorn species with CGI on Star Trek: Enterprise .

5) The Trouble with Tribbles

One of Star Trek’s most famous episodes brings the Enterprise to Space Station K-7 where there is some fear that visiting Klingons might disrupt the delivery of much a needed grain to an Earth colony. Meanwhile, Nichelle Nichols ’ Uhura goes shopping and purchases a Tribble, a small purring creature that looks like a ball of hair. Unfortunately, it turns out that Tribbles are born pregnant and they begin to multiply exponentially.

“The Trouble with Tribbles” is a fairly light-hearted adventure that also feels like a day in the life for the crew of the Enterprise. Kirk’s attempts to deal with Federation politics wind up taking a back seat to the tribble problem as a memorable Star Trek species is born.

For the franchise’s 30 th anniversary, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would return to “The Trouble with Tribbles” with an episode called “Trials and Tribble-ations”. In it, the crew travels back in time to prevent a plot to assassinate Captain Kirk during the events of “The Trouble with Tribbles,” digitally inserting actors into the background of the original episode with an adventure that makes use of impressive visual effects to tell a concurrent narrative.

4) Mirror, Mirror

Quite arguably the definitive pop culture example of parallel realities, “Mirror, Mirror” finds Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura in a transporter accident that swaps them with their counterparts from an alternate timeline. While the Enterprise is negotiating for dilithium on behalf of the United Federation of Planets in the regular timeline, the alternate history sees an aggressive Enterprise take the valuable resources by force in the name of the Terran Empire.

“Mirror, Mirror” is particularly famous for having a goateed Spock in the mirror universe. The “evil” goatee has become iconic in pop culture to represent all kinds of evil twins and alternate reality doppelgangers.

Although there were several novels and comic books that made use of the Mirror Universe, it would be nearly three decades before the timeline would return in the official Star Trek canon. The second season Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Crossover” would make visits to the parallel timeline a nearly annual event for the spinoff series.

3) Balance of Terror

When the Enterprise encounters a Romulan vessel, the two ships come into combat and soon leave one another disabled and floating in space. Each races to make repairs before the other to claim victory in an encounter that reveals surprising new details about an old Starfleet foe.

In the Star Trek timeline, Earth experienced a brief but intense war with the Romulan Star Empire about a century earlier. Because the combat occurred in space, Earth never learned what Romulans look like. Here, it’s revealed that they’re a warlike offshoot of the Vulcan species, leading to some immediate tension between Spock and one of his crewmates.

A throwback to submarine thrillers like The Enemy Below and Run Silent, Run Deep , “Balance of Terror” is elevated by Mark Lenard’s pre-Sarek appearance as the commander of the Romulan vessel. As the viewpoint shifts from the Enterprise to the Romulan vessel, we find that he and Kirk are not so different in their adherence to their duty.

2) Amok Time

The first episode of Star Trek ’s second season reveals a Vulcan secret. Every seven years, the species goes through a mating cycle in which they must return to Vulcan and take a mate. Unfortunately, Spock’s would be mate demands the koon-ut-kal-if-fee, a battle to death between her suitor and a champion of her choosing. When she chooses Captain Kirk, both officers must fight in a Vulcan ceremony that will not end until one of them is dead.

Not only does “Amok Time” deliver on its promise of an epic Kirk vs. Spock fight to the death, but it’s a great example of Spock growing to trust and appreciate his crewmates. It’s an intensely personal story for Spock and it culminates with a fantastic line from the character.

“After a time,” Spock tells a Vulcan woman who has rejected him in favor of another suitor, “You may find that having is not so pleasing a thing after all as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true.”

For that line alone, “Amok Time” deserves its honored place in Star Trek history.

1) The City on the Edge of Forever

It’s pretty much universally understood that the penultimate episode of Star Trek ’s first season is the franchise’s very finest story. Having accidentally injected himself with a drug that drives him crazy, DeForest Kelley ’s Dr. McCoy beams down to an alien planet where an ancient gateway, the Guardian of Forever, allows passage through time and space itself. A crazed McCoy travels back to Earth in the 1930s and does something that stops Starfleet from having ever existed. With no other choice, Kirk and Spock travel back themselves in the hopes of restoring the timeline.

It’s in the 1930s that Kirk and Spock meet Joan Collins ’ Edith Keeler a thoroughly lovely young woman who has dedicated herself to helping the less fortunate in a New York Mission. As they search for McCoy, Kirk begins to develop a relationship with Edith. And then the bad news hits: in order to fix the timeline, Edith Keeler must die.

The need for Edith Keeler to die is made all the more tragic by the fact that she’s not in any way a bad person. Spock explains that her success at organizing a pacifist movement in the United States will lead to the United States delaying its entrance into World War II. It is peace that she’s fighting for and in the name of peace that she must be sacrificed.

“The City on the Edge of Forever” is, simply, the epitome of what science fiction has to offer, bolstered by an original script by legendary author Harlan Ellison and a perfect romance between William Shatner and Joan Collins.

“Let me help,” smiles Kirk to Keeler as they a New York street together, he comments on her choice of words. “A hundred years or so from now, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He'll recommend those three words, even over 'I love you’.”

For all the franchise’s many adventure across space and time, none come quite close to the simple, tragic elegance of “The City on the Edge of Forever”.

Every Star Trek TV Pilot, Ranked

Ahead of the debut of Star Trek: Discovery, we revisit the pilots of the Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.

Besides Star Trek: The Original Series , which had an uncannily awesome first season, the beloved franchise has a bold tradition of rocky starts. It generally took a while for each series to reach its full potential, as most pilot episodes left fans with a sour aftertaste. Hopefully, that won't be the case with the CBS revival Star Trek: Discovery . But in honor of its upcoming debut, it's a good time to revisit all of the previous Trek pilots, from The Original Series to Enterprise , and rank them from worst to best.

RELATED: What Star Trek: Discovery Can Learn From Previous Trek Shows

EDITOR'S NOTE: We're counting "Where No Man Has Gone Before" as the proper pilot for TOS, and we're leaving out The Animated Series.

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5. Star Trek: The Next Generation - Encounter at Farpoint

Oh, Groppler Zorn. Star Trek: The Next Generation , by far, had the worst pilot of the 51-year-old franchise, despite being co-written by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Arriving in 1987, the first live-action Star Trek episode in nearly 20 years was a certified stinker, boasting a boring plot, stiff acting, a chemistry-less cast and a forced cameo from DeForrest Kelley's Dr. McCoy.

RELATED: Jonathan Frakes Drops Major Star Trek: Discovery Spoiler

Even the debut of John de Lancie's omnipotent Q couldn't save the wreck of a pilot. Setting the stage for a lackluster first two seasons of TNG (besides a couple standout episodes, like Season 2's outstanding -- and Ted 2 story inspiration -- "Measure of a Man"), the snooze-fest that is "Encounter at Farpoint" did no favors for the franchise. It wasn't until Michael Piller came on board in Season 3 that TNG really found its groove -- and boy, did it ever.

4. Star Trek: Voyager - Caretaker

"Caretaker," in a lot of ways, is better than the series that followed. It established the overarching dilemma of the Voyager crew, and promised a different kind of Trek show. However, the result was a poor Next Generation knockoff.

Regardless, it's not a bad episode of Star Trek , with some fun moments that showcase the personality of each main crew member. It's a shame, though, that Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway spends a chunk of the episode incapacitated in a chamber; she definitely deserved more than that in her first outing, considering how badass we would soon learn she was.

3. Star Trek: Enterprise - Broken Bow

Launching in 2001, Star Trek: Enterprise beamed its way onscreen with the most cinematic -- and downright good-looking -- pilot of the entire franchise, written by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and masterfully directed by James L. Conway. Unlike some of the other pilots that falter with their less-than-exciting plots (which take place in only a couple locations), Enterprise charts new territory, engaging the audience in an exciting mission that hits a ton of different locales as Archer assembles his rag-tag crew.

The pilot is also notable for showcasing a more "mature" Trek , boasting that memorably sexy scene with T'Pol and that decontaminate jelly. Good times.

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2. star trek: deep space nine - emissary.

Written by Trek visionary Michael Piller, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's pilot set the dark tone of the series, establishing the 1993 spinoff as something unique and incredibly important. Expanding on one of TNG 's finest episodes, "The Best of Both Worlds," the pilot established the tragic death of Benjamin Sisko's wife, introducing us to a fascinating lead character: a Starfleet commander who didn't even want to be there.

RELATED: Star Trek: Discovery: How & Where To Watch the TV Revival

Giving us a glimpse into the religious lore of Bajor, in addition to the complex relationships of its interesting cast of characters, "Emissary" packed a lot in two hours. DS9 took a while to find its footing, but the pilot succeeded in justifying why there should be another Trek series, showcasing bold new characters and a serialized conflict that would last seven whole years.

1. Star Trek: The Original Series - Where No Man Has Gone Before

Although it wasn't the first Star Trek episode to air, and isn't technically the first Star Trek pilot, 1966's "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was the first episode to be produced featuring William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk. It's also iconic because it's a damn fine episode, with intensely personal stakes, nail-biting drama and the introduction of the instant-classic Kirk-Spock dynamic.

RELATED: How Star Trek Discovery Blends Tradition with New, Relevant Frontiers

A masterpiece of storytelling, and one of the finest episodes of sci-fi to grace the small screen, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" established Star Trek as a gorgeous, action-packed-yet-introspective series that could tackle complex moral issues while being -- quite simply -- a whole lot of fun. Although there are many amazing Original Series episodes, this one certainly stands out among the best.

In the United States, Star Trek: Discovery debuts Sunday, September 24, on CBS, before moving to the CBS All Access streaming service for follow-up weekly installments. In Canada, the series debuts on CTV and Space at 8:30 pm ET, with its second episode set to air immediately after on Space — subsequent episodes will air Sundays through Nov. 5. Internationally, the series will stream on Netflix.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews
• Episode aired Oct 4, 1988

Capt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions. Capt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions. Capt. Pike is held prisoner and tested by aliens who have the power to project incredibly lifelike illusions.

• Robert Butler
• Gene Roddenberry
• Jeffrey Hunter
• Susan Oliver
• Leonard Nimoy
• 68 User reviews
• 9 Critic reviews

• Captain Christopher Pike

• Mister Spock

• (as M. Leigh Hudec)

• Dr. Phillip Boyce

• Lt. José Tyler

• Yeoman J.M. Colt
• Bridge Crewmember
• (uncredited)

• Transporter Chief Pitcairn

• Third Survivor
• First Talosian

• Dr. Theodore Haskins
• Enterprise Geologist
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Did you know

• Trivia Leonard Nimoy 's Mr. Spock was the only character from the first pilot retained into the series. The ship's first officer character, Number One, was rejected for the series by the network because she was female (according to Gene Roddenberry ), or because of her lack of acting ability (according to Desilu production chief Herbert F. Solow ). Actress Majel Barrett (Roddenberry's girlfriend at the time and later wife) was recast as Nurse Chapel. When the pilot was recycled as The Menagerie: Part I (1966) and The Menagerie: Part II (1966) , it was established that Captain Pike's voyage to Talos IV took place 13 years prior to the events of the Star Trek (1966) series.
• Goofs As Pike retreats up the stairs from the warrior on "Rigel VII", you can see the blade of his spear bend as it pushes against the warrior's chest.

Vina : When dreams become more important than reality, you give up travel, building, creating. You even forget how to repair the machines left behind by your ancestors. You just sit, living and reliving other lives left behind in the thought record.

• Alternate versions Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
• Connections Edited into Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part I (1966)
• Soundtracks Star Trek Theme (Original TV Series Version) (uncredited)

User reviews 68

• Jan 1, 2011
• October 4, 1988 (United States)
• United States
• Official site
• Paramount Pictures (United States)
• Star Trek the Original Series: The Cage
• Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA (Studio)
• Desilu Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 3 minutes

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The Top 57 Episodes of ‘Star Trek,’ Ranked From Great to Perfect

First, let’s be clear: Ranking the best “Star Trek” episodes is a silly thing to do. To date, the longest-running American TV franchise has aired a gargantuan 890 episodes and counting, starting with the original series in 1966. Since then, at least one “Star Trek” TV show has aired (or streamed) every decade, totaling 11 so far (with more on the way ). Choosing the best episodes within such a boundless, occasionally contradictory storytelling galaxy seems about as wise as cheating when playing poker with a Klingon.

On the other hand, there may be no more time-honored tradition among “Star Trek” fans than a vigorous debate over what constitutes the best of the franchise. (Best series ? Best captains ? Best starships ? Best aliens ? Best uniforms ? They’ve all been ranked multiple times !)

In that spirit — and to commemorate the 57th anniversary of “Star Trek” on Sept. 8 —  Variety ’s resident “Trek” geeks have ranked the top 57 episodes of all time, across the franchise.

Creating our list required some deep-dish nerdiness in its own right: We compiled a long list of episodes from each series that we felt deserved to be on the final ranking. Then we created our own individual rankings — and promptly realized our taste was quite divergent. To reconcile our lists, we adopted the approach of the great movie ranking podcast, Screen Drafts : We took alternating turns placing a pick from 57 to 1, and we each had two opportunities to veto the other’s pick (which in every case was to ensure it was placed higher on the list).

Other than the short-lived “Star Trek: The Animated Series” (1973-1974), this list reflects every other iteration of “Trek” on TV: “Star Trek: The Original Series” (1966-1969); “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (1987-1994); “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” (1993-1999); “Star Trek: Voyager” (1995-2001); “Star Trek: Enterprise” (2001-2005); “Star Trek: Discovery” (2017-2024); “Star Trek: Picard” (2020-2023); “Star Trek: Prodigy” (2021-2022); and the ongoing “Star Trek: Lower Decks” (2020-present) and “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (2022-present).

The Way to Eden

“The Original Series” — Season 3, Episode 20

Look, this episode gets a lot of hate. But the fact is “TOS” is known (by today’s standards) for being very campy, and there is no episode campier than this one. A group of space hippies board the Enterprise on their journey to a mythical planet called Eden, where they can live happily forever. The episode memorably features Charles Napier (who would go on to a long career playing tough guys, villains, cops and the like) breaking out into song a bunch of times, including a jam session with Spock (Leonard Nimoy). —Joe Otterson Original airdate: Feb. 21, 1969

Terra Prime

“Enterprise” — Season 4, Episode 21 More than any other episode of “Enterprise,” “Terra Prime” made the most of the show’s mission to dramatize the beginnings of Starfleet, 100 years before the events of “TOS.” Just as a newfound coalition of planets begins to form on Earth (a precursor to the Federation), Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew must stop a xenophobic terrorist (played to the hilt by future “Star Trek Into Darkness” villain Peter Weller) bent on forcing all aliens to leave Earth. Subtle, it ain’t, but the story feels more relevant today than it did 20 years ago, and everyone in the cast gets a moment to shine. Alas, it came too late: “Enterprise” had been canceled before this episode even went into production. —Adam B. Vary Original airdate: May 13, 2005

“Prodigy” — Season 1, Episode 6

The animated “Prodigy” was the first “Star Trek” series geared toward kids, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t things for older “Trek” fans to enjoy. In particular, “Kobayashi” perfectly embodies what makes this show a worthy entry in “Trek” canon. Dal (Brett Gray) and Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) discover the holodeck aboard the Protostar, where they decide to go through the Kobayashi Maru, a.k.a. the “no-win scenario” that Capt. Kirk successfully beat during his time at the Academy. He gets help along the way from legendary characters like Spock, Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Odo (René Auberjonois). —J.O.

Original airdate: Jan. 6, 2022

Stormy Weather

“Discovery” — Season 4, Episode 6

On a mission to discover the origins of a cataclysmic gravitational anomaly, the U.S.S. Discovery enters a subspace rift and finds itself trapped inside a lethal black void that threatens to collapse in on the ship. The result is a classic race-against-time thriller (directed by “Trek” mainstay Jonathan Frakes), but what makes “Stormy Weather” stand out amid the heavily serialized episodes of “Discovery” is its emotionally resonant use of the ship’s sentient A.I. computer, Zora (Annabelle Wallis), who has to learn how to calm her mind from overwhelming stimuli in order to guide the ship out of danger. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Dec. 23, 2021

Seventeen Seconds

“Picard” — Season 3, Episode 3

“Picard” didn’t find itself until Season 3, which reunited the core cast of “The Next Generation” — and it was really Episode 3 that sealed the deal. Riker (Frakes) is forced to take command of the Titan as Vadic (Amanda Plummer) and the Shrike hunt them. Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Dr. Crusher get an all-time great scene together as she reveals why she never told him about their son, Jack (Ed Speleers). Worf (Michael Dorn) makes his big return. We learn the Changelings are still intent on attacking the Federation. Riker and Picard end up at odds in a way we’ve never seen before. In short, epic. —J.O.

Original airdate: March 2, 2023

The Enemy Within

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 5

The transporter — the cause of, and solution to, so many “Star Trek” problems — accidentally splits Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) into two people: Good Kirk, who is wracked with indecision, and evil Kirk, who is a histrionic asshole. Come for a meditation on the darkness that lies tucked inside everyone’s psyche, stay for some of William Shatner’s most deliciously hammy acting — and this was just the fifth episode of the series! —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Oct. 6, 1966

Family Business

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 3, Episode 23

The Ferengi episodes of “DS9” are always great comic relief, with this episode giving fans their first view of the home planet of Ferenginar and Ferengi culture in general. Quark (Armin Shimerman) and Rom (Max Grodénchik) must return home when their mother, Ishka (Andrea Martin), is accused of acquiring profit (gasp!), something Ferengi females are forbidden to do. Shimerman and Martin shine as they play out Quark and Ishka’s relationship, while Grodénchik really gets to put his comedic chops on display. This episode is also notable as the first appearance of Brunt (Jeffrey Combs) from the Ferengi Commerce Authority, as well as Kasidy Yates (Penny Johnson Jerald), frequent love interest of Cmdr. Sisko (Avery Brooks). —J.O.

Original airdate: May 15, 1995

Blink of an Eye

“Voyager” — Season 6, Episode 12

The Voyager gets stuck in orbit around a planet where time passes far more rapidly than in the rest of space, as the episode alternates between the bemused curiosity of Capt. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and her crew and the awestruck preoccupation of the expeditiously progressing populace on the planet below, for whom Voyager is a sparkling, fixed constant in the night sky. At one point, the Doctor (Robert Picard) beams down to the planet to investigate, and a delay of only a few minutes on Voyager means he spends three years on its surface. He even adopts a son! One of the great, wild what if? episodes of “Star Trek.” —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Jan. 19, 2000

“The Next Generation” — Season 3, Episode 23

Mark Lenard absolutely crushed the role of Spock’s father, Sarek, in multiple episodes across multiple “Star Trek” series and movies, but this episode is perhaps his finest performance as the character. Sarek comes to the Enterprise-D on what is meant to be his final mission, only for the crew to learn he is suffering from Bendii Syndrome. The condition leaves him prone to uncharacteristic emotional outbursts while also causing him to telepathically influence the emotions of those around him. Picard saves the day by mind melding with Sarek, allowing him to finish his mission with dignity — and provide Stewart with the chance for some powerhouse acting as he channels Sarek’s volcanic emotions. —J.O.

Original airdate: May 14, 1990

“Enterprise” — Season 3, Episode 10

“Trek” loves a moral dilemma, and this one’s a doozy: After Cmdr. Tucker (Connor Trinneer) is critically injured while the Enterprise is on a deep space mission, Dr. Phlox (John Billingsley) suggests growing a “mimetic symbiote” of Trip — effectively, a clone with a built-in two-week lifespan — in order to create the brain tissue needed to save Trip’s life. But that means the Enterprise crew must endure watching Trip’s clone rapidly age from a precocious kid to an adult man (played by Trinneer with eerie self-possession), who then pleads for his own right to live. Creepy and heartbreaking in equal measure. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Nov. 19, 2003

Trials and Tribble-ations

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 5, Episode 6

This episode is a love letter to the original series, with the Defiant’s crew transported back in time to the events of “The Trouble With Tribbles.” A Klingon agent is planning to use a booby-trapped tribble to assassinate James T. Kirk. Thanks to digital editing, the crew is able to interact with the original Enterprise crew and keep the timeline intact. —J.O.

Original airdate: Nov. 4, 1996

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 2, Episode 23

Mirror universe episodes of “Star Trek” are (almost) always fun, if ultimately a little silly. But this one — in which Kira (Nana Visitor) and Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) find themselves in an alternate reality in which Bajor, Cardassians and Klingons subjugate humans as slaves — comes closest to matching the spark of discovery in the original “TOS” episode. It’s especially fun to watch Visitor devour the role of Kira’s deliciously wicked mirror counterpart, the Intendant. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: May 16, 1994

Memento Mori

“Strange New Worlds” — Season 1, Episode 4

This episode proved “Strange New Worlds” — the newest “Star Trek” series — could be as action-packed as the very best of “Star Trek.” The Enterprise crew find themselves on the run from the Gorn, a savage enemy (first introduced on “TOS” and largely ignored in “Trek” canon) about which they know virtually nothing. They are forced to use every resource at their disposal to outwit and outrun the Gorn, including tapping into the subconscious of La’an (Christina Chong), the only crew member who has encountered the aliens and survived. —J.O.

Original airdate: May 26, 2022

Counterpoint

“Voyager” — Season 5, Episode 10

The main story is a tense, WWII allegory: Capt. Janeway and her crew hide telepathic refugees while passing through the space of the Devore, who have outlawed telepaths. But the real story is the relationship Janeway forms with the lead Devore inspector, Kashyk (Mark Harelik), who suddenly shows up alone and announces he’s defecting. As Kashyk aids Janeway in finding safe harbor for the refugees, she realizes how much he’s her intellectual equal, and she finds herself drawn to him — in spite of (or perhaps spurred on by) her continued suspicion of his motives. A great, subtle performance by Mulgrew captures both Janeway’s steely wits and her private yearning. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Dec. 16, 1998

The Drumhead

“The Next Generation” — Season 4, Episode 21

“Star Trek” has done a number of courtroom episodes, and this is one of the best. Rear admiral Norah Satie (Jean Simmons) is sent to investigate suspected sabotage aboard the Enterprise. The investigation quickly spirals into paranoia and accusations of treachery against a crew member who is revealed to have Romulan lineage. It is an excellent reminder of what can happen when persecution is dressed up as an attempt at greater security, with Picard using Satie’s father’s teachings to bring about her downfall. —J.O.

Original airdate: April 29, 1991

“The Next Generation” — Season 7, Episode 8

More thwarted romance! The seasons-long will-they/won’t-they between Picard and Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) gets its best showcase, when the pair are captured by isolationist aliens and given implants that allow them to read each other’s thoughts. You get the feeling Stewart and especially McFadden had been dying to play out this dynamic on the show, so they both bring years of sublimated longing to the episode. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Nov. 8, 1993

In the Hands of the Prophets

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 1, Episode 20

Louise Fletcher’s performance as Vedek Winn (later Kai Winn) ranks among the best “Star Trek” villains of all time. Deeply religious to the point of fanaticism, Winn protests Keiko O’Brien (Rosalind Chao) teaching children on Deep Space Nine that the wormhole aliens are not deities, as many Bajorans believe. Winn’s words whip Bajorans on the station into a frenzy; Keiko’s school is bombed. But what Winn really desires is power, to the point she tries to get one of her followers to kill a fellow Vedek she sees as a threat. The episode sets up Winn’s role as a major antagonist throughout the series to great effect. —J.O.

Original airdate: June 21, 1993

The Trouble With Tribbles

“The Original Series” — Season 2, Episode 15

If you’ve seen any episode of “TOS,” chances are it’s this one. While on shore leave at a space station, the Enterprise comes upon an adorably furry alien creature called a tribble, which are born pregnant, multiply exponentially, consume enormous quantities of food and react with alarm when in the presence of a Klingon. Fizzy and funny and, to this day, one of the best-known episodes of “Trek” ever. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Dec. 29, 1967

Balance of Terror

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 14

Introducing the Romulans alone makes this episode worthy of being on the list. But it’s also an epic cat-and-mouse game between Kirk and a Romulan commander played by none other than Mark Lenard, who would go on to play Sarek starting in Season 2. Kirk successfully lures the Romulan ship into a trap, leading to Lenard delivering the iconic line, “You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend.” —J.O.

Original airdate: Dec. 15, 1966

“The Next Generation” — Season 4, Episode 20

John de Lancie never disappoints when he plays Q, but this episode offered a wonderful twist on his usual appearances. Following the events of “Deja Q,” Q returns to the Enterprise saying he owes Picard a debt. Picard repeatedly tells Q he wants nothing from him, but Q notices Picard has eyes for Vash (Jennifer Hetrick), the mercenary archeologist Picard first met on Risa. Being Q, he naturally transports Picard, Vash, and the bridge crew to a Robin Hood fantasy in which Picard must rescue Vash from the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Clive Frevill). Added bonus: Worf, in scarlet tights, exclaiming in protest, “I am not a merry man!” —J.O.

Original airdate: April 22, 1991

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 18

The classic “trial by combat” episode that pitted Kirk against a Gorn captain on a barren, rocky planet (i.e. the storied filming location Vasquez Rocks ). Few images from “Star Trek” have become more iconic than the original Gorn costume, which was essentially an actor dressed as a large lizard. The ending is also an all-timer, with Kirk choosing to spare the Gorn, proving to the all-powerful Metrons that set up the trial by combat that humans are capable of more than just random violence. —J.O.

Original airdate: Jan. 19, 1967

A Mathematically Perfect Redemption

“Lower Decks” — Season 3, Episode 7

“Star Trek’s” first pure comedy (and second animated series) often plays as a twisted love letter to the entire “Trek” franchise — like when Peanut Hamper (Kether Donohue), one of the sentient Exocomp robots first introduced on “The Next Generation,” abandons the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos in a time of need. This episode tracks Peanut Hamper’s journey to redemption afterwards, which involves her encountering a seemingly primitive species called the Areore. To say anything more would spoil the fun; suffice it to say, “Trek” has rarely provoked gasps of deep laughter like this episode does. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Oct. 6, 2022

Bar Association

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 4, Episode 15

What better episode of “Star Trek” to talk about after Hollywood’s hot labor summer? Fed up with the unfair conditions at Quark’s bar, Rom talks the other workers into forming a union and going on strike. Max Grodénchik truly shines in this episode as the would-be union leader. Once Rom successfully gets Quark to agree to all the workers’ demands, he outright quits and goes to work as a repair technician for the station, setting up some of Rom’s best moments in the episodes to come. —J.O.

Original airdate: Feb. 19, 1996

“Voyager” — Season 5, Episode 26 & Season 6, Episode 1

The Voyager swoops to the rescue of the Equinox, another Federation starship stranded in the Gamma Quadrant — only this one, led by Capt. Ransom (John Savage), is a smaller ship not meant for deep space travel. With their crew whittled down to just 12 people, Ransom has resorted to murdering alien creatures to use their bio-matter to boost the Equinox’s engines — a horrific violation of everything Starfleet stands for. The discovery pushes Janeway to her own limits, as she obsessively pursues the Equinox despite the cost to her own crew and her morality. The two-parter is one of the darkest episodes of “Star Trek,” a chilling reminder of how easily good people can find themselves slipping into disgrace. —A.B.V.

Original airdates: May 26, 1999 & Sept. 22, 1999

Who Mourns for Morn?

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 6, Episode 12

Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd) was a “Deep Space Nine” fixture, always at Quark’s bar, but never actually speaking onscreen. But in this episode, with Morn apparently dead in an accident, everyone reveals the offscreen times they spent with him, including the revelation that he “never shuts up.” Quark inherits all of Morn’s property, which Odo relishes revealing is ultimately nothing. But as it turns out, Morn had a much more adventurous life before his time on “DS9” than anyone knew, leading his former comrades to seek him out to get a hold of the money they believed he still possessed. —J.O.

Original airdate: Feb. 4, 1998

Species Ten-C

“Discovery” — Season 4, Episode 12

Other than the Gorn, almost all of the aliens on “Star Trek” are, essentially, humans with slightly different forehead ridges. But in its most recent season, “Discovery” embraced “Trek’s” prime directive (seeking out new life, bolding going where no one’s gone, etc.) by crafting a species that is truly alien: the Ten-C. Throughout the season, the Ten-C are presented as both a total mystery and an existential threat; when Capt. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the Discovery finally reach them — outside the barrier of the Milky Way galaxy — they are unlike anything the show has ever encountered. Rarely has “Trek” applied more intellectual and emotional rigor to what it might actually be like to attempt first contact with extra-terrestrials, and rarely has it been this compelling. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: March 10, 2022

A Man Alone

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 1, Episode 4

Odo is one of the best characters in “DS9” — and in the “Star Trek” universe — in general, and this is the first episode to really establish him as a standout . A known criminal returns to the station only to die shortly after, and Odo is accused of his murder. Odo’s status as an outsider, but ultimately someone to be respected, is made crystal clear in this episode, with even his archenemy Quark acknowledging that Odo is not the type to murder someone in cold blood. —J.O.

Original airdate: Jan. 17, 1993

Mirror, Mirror

“The Original Series” — Season 2, Episode 4

The transporter strikes again, this time accidentally zapping Kirk, Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Scotty (James Doohan) and Bones (DeForest Kelley) from their reality into a parallel universe in which the benevolent Federation has been replaced by the bloodthirsty Terran Empire, governed by brute force and fascistic exploitation — and Spock has a goatee! More silly than serious (and no less fun for it), the episode effectively spawned an entire sub-genre of parallel universe episodes of TV (from “Supernatural” to “Friends”) and gave generations of actors a chance to play wildly against type. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Oct. 6, 1967

“The Next Generation” — Season 4, Episode 2

People rave about “The Best of Both Worlds” and Picard’s assimilation by the Borg, but fewer remember this incredible follow-up episode. Picard returns to his family vineyard to put the Borg incident behind him, even briefly thinking that he will leave Starfleet. Jeremy Kemp crushes it as Picard’s brother Robert, with the two sharing a memorable (and muddy) scene in which Picard breaks down and admits how much his assimilation has shaken him. The episode is also memorable for the appearance of Worf’s adoptive parents, who come to the Enterprise to be with him following his discommendation. —J.O.

Original airdate: Oct. 1, 1990

Living Witness

“Voyager” — Season 4, Episode 23

For several minutes, “Living Witness” seems like a mirror universe episode, as a ruthless Janeway, captain of the “warship” Voyager, agrees to aid the Vaskans against the insurgent Kyrians by unleashing a biological weapon upon millions and executing the Kyrian leader. But then we realize that we’ve just witnessed a recreation at a Kyrian museum 700 years in the future, at which point a copy of the Doctor enters the story and learns, to his horror, how much the Kyrians have gotten wrong. What could have been a Rashomon-style caper instead becomes fascinating meditation on how the telling of history can be weaponized, even inadvertently, to maintain old wounds rather than heal them. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: April 29, 1998

Unification

“The Next Generation” — Season 5, Episode 7 & 8

Spock appeared on “The Next Generation” a month before the release of 1991’s “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” — but this time, at least, crass cross-promotion prompted some sublimely entertaining TV, as Picard and Data (Brent Spiner) aid Spock in his effort to reunify the Romulan and Vulcan peoples. [Stefon voice]: This two-parter has everything : Klingon warbirds, rude Ferengis, Tasha’s evil Romulan daughter Sela (Denise Crosby), Data and Spock philosophizing on their twin pursuits of logic and emotion, the death of Sarek, Worf singing Klingon opera with a four-armed bar pianist, and Picard and Spock mind-melding! —A.B.V.

Original airdates: Nov. 4 & 11, 1991

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 7, Episode 9

Gul Dukat is the best villain in “Star Trek.” Yes, you read that right. The writers and actor Marc Alaimo created an incredibly nuanced character that goes through a remarkable arc over the course of the series. This episode, near the end of “DS9’s” run, reminds fans that Dukat sees himself as a savior, but is ultimately a force for evil. He establishes a cult dedicated to the Pah wraiths on Empok Nor, luring a number of Bajorans to his side. But of course, he also sleeps with his female followers and tries to trick them into a mass suicide. Amazing stuff. —J.O.

Original airdate: Nov. 23, 1998

The Last Generation

“Picard” — Season 3, Episode 10

The cast of “TNG” infamously never got their swan song, after 2002’s “Star Trek: Nemesis” bombed in theaters, so this series finale serves as a gift both to them and to “TNG” fans. Every character gets their spotlight, including the resurrected Enterprise-D, as Picard, Riker, Dr. Crusher, Data, Worf, LaForge (LeVar Burton) and Troi (Marina Sirtis) all help to take down the Borg once and for all. The final scene — everyone sitting around a poker table, laughing and reminiscing — is as pure and satisfying an expression of fan service as anything “Trek” has ever done. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: April 20, 2023

“The Next Generation” — Season 3, Episode 13

Until this episode, Q was an enjoyably malevolent force within “TNG,” an omnipotent being who’d gleefully pop up now and again to play with the lives of the Enterprise-D crew. But here, when Q suddenly appears on the bridge, he’s been stripped of all his powers (and all of his clothes) and begs Picard for safe harbor. At first, no one believes him — even after Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) stabs him with a fork — which only fuels John de Lancie’s sparkling performance, as Q confronts life as ( shudder ) a mortal human. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Feb. 3, 1990

An Embarrassment of Dooplers

“Lower Decks” — Season 2, Episode 5

The title refers to an alien called a Doopler, who duplicate themselves whenever they get embarrassed — which, naturally, becomes an issue the moment one steps foot on the Cerritos. But really, this episode is one of those deeply enjoyable “Trek” episodes that is less about story than it is about the vibes , as the characters spend their downtime winningly contending with the central premise of the show: The bittersweet contentment of life at the bottom of the ladder. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Sept. 9, 2021

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 2, Episode 19    

The lives of the past hosts of the Dax symbiont are a recurring plot device on “DS9,” and no episode does it better than this one. A group of Klingons who knew Curzon Dax arrive at the station and enlist Jadzia’s (Terry Ferrell) help in killing their sworn enemy, a criminal known as The Albino who killed the three Klingons’ first-born sons. Jadzia ultimately honors the blood oath, as the episode explores the meaning of honor and solidarity. —J.O.

Original airdate: March 28, 1994

Where No Man Has Gone Before

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 3

The famed second pilot episode of “Star Trek” (which introduced William Shatner as Capt. Kirk) is a strange artifact today: Bones and Uhura aren’t aboard yet, Sulu (George Takei) isn’t at the helm, the Enterprise has a psychiatrist (played by Sally Kellerman), and the uniforms and sets look a bit off. But the central story — Kirk’s best friend, Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood), is zapped by an energy blast at the edge of the galaxy, and begins to exhibit extraordinary psychokinetic powers — is vintage “Trek”: Brainy, brawny, and just the right side of uncanny. And it’s fascinating now to see how well-established Kirk and Spock’s dynamic of emotion vs. logic was from the very start. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Sept. 22, 1966

The Measure of a Man

“The Next Generation” — Season 2, Episode 9

Data’s quest for humanity is at the very core of “TNG,” and this stirring episode literally puts that quest on trial — and establishes the show’s voice for the rest of its run. A Starfleet scientist wants to dismantle Data in order to create more androids, but Data refuses, setting up an intense courtroom drama — is Data merely a machine and the property of Starfleet? — with Picard representing Data while Riker is forced to represent the scientist. —J.O.

Original airdate: Feb. 13, 1989

“The Next Generation” — Season 4, Episode 26 & Season 5, Episode 1

The Klingons started on “Trek” as a not-that-thinly-veiled metaphor for the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, but over the decades, they’ve developed their own richly detailed mythology. This two-parter (which aired just before the fall of the USSR) depicts a civil war within the Klingon Empire that leads to Worf’s decision to leave the Enterprise and join the fight. For a series that was episodic by design, this is the closest “TNG” ever got to serialized storytelling, incorporating events from several previous episodes — including the shocking introduction of Tasha’s Romulan daughter, Sela. —A.B.V.

Original airdates: June 17, 1991 & Sept. 23, 1991

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 1, Episode 11

It is endlessly entertaining to see Quark get what he wants as he then  learns that it’s way more trouble than he realized. This episode sums that idea up nicely, while also featuring the first of many wonderful appearances by Wallace Shawn as Ferengi leader Grand Nagus Zek. Zek unexpectedly names Quark his successor, only for Zek to die shortly after. Quark is thrilled at first, before he realizes being the Nagus puts a massive target on his back. This episode also helps build the friendship between Nog (Aron Eisenbeg) and Jake (Cirroc Lofton), with Jake secretly teaching Nog how to read. —J.O.

Original airdate: March 22, 1993

Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy

“Voyager” — Season 6, Episode 4

Yearning to grow past his programming, the Doctor allows himself the ability to daydream, in one of the flat-out funniest episodes of “Trek” ever. It opens with Robert Picardo singing opera as Tuvok (Tim Russ) undergoes pon farr (i.e. the madness to mate that consumes Vulcan males) and just gets wilder from there, up to the moment when the Doctor, who’d fantasized about taking over command of Voyager in an emergency, does it for real. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Oct. 13, 1999

“The Original Series” — Season 2, Episode 1

Speaking of pon farr, this is the “TOS” episode that first establishes it — as well as the planet Vulcan, several Vulcan customs and traditions, and the now legendary Vulcan salute (honorable mention: Spock actually smiles!). Wracked with pon farr, Spock asks for leave back on his home planet, and eventually reveals that he must meet his betrothed, T’Pring (Arlene Martel). Naturally, Kirk and Spock end up in a fight to the death in one of the most iconic battles in “Star Trek” history. —J.O.

Original airdate: Sept. 15, 1967

Year of Hell

“Voyager” — Season 4, Episode 8 & 9

The most lasting criticism of “Voyager” is that every week, no matter what happened in the previous episode, the ship and crew emerged unscathed and ready for a new adventure. As if in response, this two-parter tracks a year in which the Voyager is ravaged to the point of near ruin by repeated encounters with an aggressive alien species called the Krenim. Unbeknownst to the crew, they’re actually the victims of a Krenim scientist, Annorax (Kurtwood Smith), who developed a technology to alter the fabric of time by erasing entire species from ever existing. This is as harrowing and merciless as “Trek’s” ever been, but it’s not quite the best episode of “Voyager” due to the irony of its ending: Janeway crashes the husk of the Voyager into Annorax’s timeship — which resets the timeline completely, as if nothing that we’d seen had ever happened. —A.B.V.

Original airdates: Nov. 5 & 12, 1997

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 3, Episodes 11 & 12

“Star Trek” often addresses timely societal issues, but this episode put them firmly in a 21st century context. Sisko, Bashir, and Dax accidentally wind up in San Francisco circa 2024, where poverty and oppression of the disadvantaged are running rampant (crazy how that remains timely, huh?). When a man meant to serve an important purpose in an historic riot is accidentally killed too soon, Sisko is forced to take his place. —J.O.

Original airdate: Jan. 2, 1995 & Jan. 9, 1995

Those Old Scientists

“Strange New Worlds” — Season 2, Episode 7

In one of the rare “Trek” crossover episodes, Ens. Boimler (Jack Quaid) and Ens. Mariner (Tawny Newsome) from “Lower Decks” find themselves zapped back to the era when Capt. Pike (Anson Mount) captained the Enterprise. Marshalled by Jonathan Frakes’ steady hand as a director , the disparate tones of “Lower Decks” and “Strange New World” somehow mesh perfectly, and hilariously, together. Packed with guffaw-worthy laughs, “Those Old Scientists” also becomes a deeply poignant expression of the impact “Trek” has had on generations of fans. Maybe it’s controversial to place one of the most recent “Trek” episodes so high on this list, but this one more than earns its spot. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: July 22, 2023

The Best of Both Worlds

“The Next Generation” — Season 3, Episode 26 & Season 4, Episode 1

This two-parter is frequently cited as the best “Next Generation” storyline of all time, mostly because it features one of the most iconic cliffhangers in all of television. The Borg attack the Federation, leading to a showdown with the Enterprise. Picard is captured and assimilated, revealing himself to his crew as Locutus of Borg. If we’re splitting Borg nano-probes, the second half doesn’t quite live up to the first, which is why, for us, it doesn’t quite rank into the Top 10. Special shoutout to this episode for setting up the incredible “Star Trek” film “First Contact.” —J.O.

Original airdate: June 18, 1990 & Sept. 24, 1990

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 1, Episode 19

When a Cardassian named Marritza (Harris Yulin) arrives on Deep Space Nine, Kira realizes he must have worked at one of the most notorious labor camps during Cardassia’s occupation of Bajor, and she arrests him as a war criminal. What follows is effectively a two-hander, as Kira’s interrogation of Marritza leads to a series of revelations that unmoor her hard-won fury at the atrocities inflicted upon her people. The conventional wisdom is that “DS9” didn’t get cooking until the Dominion War, but this early episode proves that this show was providing great, searing drama from the start. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: June 14, 1993

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 22

Ricardo Montalbán makes his debut as Khan Noonien Singh, a genetically superior dictator from Earth’s Eugenics Wars. Khan and his people have been in suspended animation for 200 years and are looking to dominate humanity once again. Naturally, Kirk is able to beat Khan in a riveting confrontation, but rather than send him and his people to a penal colony, he agrees to let them settle on the wild planet, Ceti Alpha V. The episode proved to be so good, it led to the 1982 film “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan,” arguably the best “Trek” movie of all time. —J.O.

Original airdate: Feb. 16, 1967

“Voyager” — Season 5, Episode 6

There’s something about time travel — and the twisty narrative paradoxes it can cause — that has engendered some of the best episodes of “Trek” ever made. That certainly includes this stunning “Voyager” episode, which opens with Harry Kim (Garrett Wang) and Chakotay (Robert Beltran), 15 years in the future, discovering the frozen husk of the Voyager buried inside a glacier on a barren ice planet. It turns out Kim made a critical mistake that caused the catastrophic accident, from which only he and Chakotay survived. Their unyielding fixation to right that wrong — and erase the previous 15 years from history — makes for a gripping nail-biter about regret and devotion. Not only did LeVar Burton direct, but he cameos as Capt. Geordi La Forge! —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Nov. 18, 1998

The Defector

“The Next Generation” — Season 3, Episode 10

Did a Romulan admiral really defect to the Federation, or are the Romulans perpetrating an elaborate hoax on Picard and the Enterprise crew? This wonderful episode sees the admiral in question (played by James Sloyan) claiming the Romulans are building a secret base within the Neutral Zone, forcing Picard to consider whether or not he should investigate and thus risk starting a war. It also features the excellent opening in which Picard tries to teach Data about humanity by having him act out scenes from Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” —J.O.

Original airdate: Jan. 1, 1990

Chain of Command

“The Next Generation” — Season 6, Episode 10 & 11

Lured into Cardassian territory under false pretenses, Picard is captured and systematically tortured by a ruthless interrogator, Gul Madred, in a chilling performance by David Warner. Their disturbing tête-à-tête — Picard is stripped naked and nearly broken by the end — would be enough for one of the all-time best “Trek” episodes. But this two-parter also boasts Ronny Cox as Capt. Jellico, Picard’s replacement on the Enterprise, whose prickly and demanding leadership style creates all kinds of thrilling friction among the crew. —A.B.V.

Original airdates: Dec. 14 & 21, 1992

In the Pale Moonlight

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 6, Episode 19

In this fantastic episode, Sisko grapples with the ethics of doing whatever it takes to get the Romulans to join the Dominion War on the Federation-Klingon side. This includes falsifying evidence and freeing a known criminal from Klingon prison with the help of master spy Garak (played by the always wonderful Andrew Robinson). Sisko (while recording a personal log) delivers a series of powerful monologues direct to camera about why he did what he did, ultimately deciding it was worth it in the end. —J.O.

Original airdate: April 13, 1998

The City on the Edge of Forever

“The Original Series” — Season 1, Episode 28

Accidentally hopped up on stimulants, a crazed Bones leaps through a time portal on an alien planet and winds up changing history so drastically that the Enterprise disappears. Kirk and Spock travel back to stop him, and land in New York City during the Great Depression, where they learn that Bones saved the life of Sister Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), a pacifist whose message resonates so strongly that the U.S. stays out of WWII, allowing the Nazis to conquer Europe. Alas, Kirk falls deeply in love with Keeler, establishing a classic “Trek” moral dilemma: How does one suppress their most profound personal feelings for the greater good? An all-timer that still resonates today. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: April 6, 1967

Far Beyond the Stars

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 6, Episode 13

In this Avery Brooks-directed episode, Sisko envisions himself as a Black science fiction writer in 1950s New York named Benny Russell. Russell dreams up a story about the crew of a space station led by a Black captain, but his publisher refuses to run it. This episode is memorable for many reasons, the biggest of which being its handling of racism, but it also allows the show’s main cast gets to appear without any prosthetics or makeup, as completely different characters, to great effect. —J.O.

Original airdate: Feb. 9, 1998

Yesterday’s Enterprise

“The Next Generation” — Season 3, Episode 15

The Enterprise-C, believed to have been destroyed over 20 years earlier, emerges from a temporal anomaly and resets history into a decades-long war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Tasha — killed off in Season 1 (after Denise Crosby wanted to leave the show) — is brought back to life, and falls for the Enterprise-C’s helmsman (Christopher McDonald), while Guinan implores Picard that something is desperately wrong with history and he must send the Enterprise-C back to certain doom. Somehow, this episode crams a movie’s worth of story into a nimble and rousing 44 minutes. Not a second is wasted. Outrageously great. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: Feb. 19, 1990

The Inner Light

“The Next Generation” — Season 5, Episode 25

When the Enterprise comes upon a mysterious probe, Picard is suddenly hit with a signal that plunges him into a different man’s life on a dying planet. There, Picard experiences half a lifetime, with a wife, children and grandchildren, all in the space of 25 minutes. When Picard realizes this was all meant as a time capsule — a way to preserve the stories of the people of the planet, which was destroyed 1,000 years earlier by an exploding star — the revelation that he lived the life he’d long forsaken as a Starfleet captain, only to have it ripped away, is almost more than he can bear. But hoo boy, does it make for stunning, deeply moving television. In fact, almost no episode of “Trek” is better. Almost. —A.B.V.

Original airdate: June 1, 1992

The Visitor

“Deep Space Nine” — Season 4, Episode 2

Don’t watch this one without tissues handy. This emotionally devastating episode gets right to the heart of what made “DS9” so special — the relationship between Sisko and his son, Jake. Told in flashbacks by an elderly Jake (Tony Todd), the episode recounts how Sisko became unstuck in time, briefly revisiting Jake over the course of his life, and how Jake is determined to bring him back. In brief, fleeting moments, Sisko tells Jake not to worry about him and to live his life to the fullest. But Jake cannot bear the thought of losing his father forever, ultimately sacrificing his own life to restore the normal flow of time. —J.O.

Original airdate: Oct. 9, 1995

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The 10 best Star Trek: The Original Series episodes, ranked

It’s hard to imagine today, but back in the late 1960s, the original Star Trek was not considered a hit. The ambitious science fiction series was constantly on the brink of cancellation and was cut short only three years into its planned five-season run.

10. Mirror, Mirror (season 2, episode 4)

9. a taste of armageddon (season 1, episode 24), 8. the menagerie, parts i and ii (season 1, episodes 12 and 13), 7. the doomsday machine (season 2, episode 6), 6. the corbomite maneuver (season 1, episode 11), 5. the devil in the dark (season 1, episode 26), 4. the trouble with tribbles (season 2, episode 15), 3. where no man has gone before (season 1, episode 4), 2. the city on the edge of forever (season 1, episode 29), 1. balance of terror (season 1, episode 15).

However, it’s important to put Trek ’s apparent failure into historical context as, given that most markets in the U.S. had only three television channels to choose from, even a low-rated show like Star Trek was being watched by about 20% of everyone watching television on a Thursday night, or roughly 10 million households. This year’s season of HBO’s Succession was viewed by roughly 8 million households a week , which makes it a hit by today’s standards. Star Trek ’s audience only grew once it went into reruns in the early 1970s, and by the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit theaters in 1979, it was a genuine cultural phenomenon. Today, the Star Trek franchise is considered one of the crown jewels of the Paramount library.

Though arguably outshined by its most prosperous spinoff, Star Trek: The Next Generation , Star Trek: The Original Series holds up remarkably well for a vision of our future imagined nearly 60 years in our past. It’s a space adventure series that tackles social or political issues from what was, at the time, a daring and progressive perspective informed by the contemporary civil rights movement, sexual revolution, and backlash against the Vietnam War. Conveying these values through fanciful science fiction didn’t only allow its writers to get away with a lot of subversive messages, it also delivered them in a way that remains fun to watch decades later — fun enough that fans are willing to forgive when its ideas, or its special effects, crumble under modern scrutiny.

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These 10 episodes, however, unquestionably stand the test of time, and thanks to the continuity-light nature of mid-20th century television, any one of them could be your first Star Trek episode. (Be aware, however, that the order in which classic Trek episodes are listed varies depending on the source. For our purposes, we’re using the numbering from streaming service Paramount+ .)

Even if you’ve never seen an episode of Star Trek , you’re bound to be at least a little familiar with Mirror, Mirror through cultural osmosis. In this 1967 classic, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan), and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are accidentally transported to an alternate universe, where they encounter dastardly evil versions of their beloved shipmates. Instead of the benevolent United Federation of Planets, this ship serves the fascist Terran Empire, which threatens to annihilate a peaceful planet for refusing to submit to itsrule. Our heroes are forced to pose as their evil counterparts while they search for a way home and try to avert the genocide they’ve been ordered to perform.

This all sounds heavier than it is — like much of classic Trek , Mirror Mirror is very camp, with brightly colored costumes, over-the-top performances, and a general sense of fun. The cast is clearly having a ball playing the wicked versions of their characters (or playing the good versions of their characters playing the wicked versions), and it’s no wonder why multiple future incarnations of Trek would return to the Mirror Universe, usually for wacky adventure episodes. (For a more grim and brutal take on this same concept, visit the back half of Star Trek: Discovery ’s first season.) However, Mirror, Mirror still comes complete with Trek ’s famous humanist optimism, as Kirk tries to convince this universe’s menacing, bearded Spock (Leonard Nimoy) that regimes ruled by fear are unsustainable and, therefore, illogical. Given enough time, peace and cooperation will always win out over hate and violence.

A Taste of Armageddon may not appear on many “Best Of” lists, but it’s 100% pure, uncut Star Trek . In this episode, Kirk and company visit Eminiar VII, a seemingly peaceful planet that is, in fact, embroiled in a centuries-long war with a neighboring world. Rather than fire actual bombs at each other, the combatants conduct simulated attacks, determine the hypothetical death toll, and then order the “dead” citizens to report to disintegration chambers. When Kirk and his landing party are recorded as casualties, they decide to put an end to Eminiar VII’s supposedly “civilized” method of warfare.

While Kirk arguably has no right to interfere with how this sovereign planet conducts its affairs, the point of A Taste of Armageddon is to reflect on America’s attempt to make constant military conflict more palatable, or even invisible to the average American. Or, in a larger sense, it’s a commentary on the ease with which a culture can become accustomed to death and violence, so long as it’s part of an established routine. Because these simulated bombings leave homes, industry, and even the military infrastructure itself totally unharmed, it’s easy to forget that Eminiar VII is even at war — that is, until it claims your life or the life of someone you love.

When even these losses are framed as necessary sacrifices to maintain normalcy, it minimizes the incentive to make peace. Kirk (and, by extension, writers Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon) argues that war is revolting no matter how much you dress it up, and that it must be brutal, terrifying, and omnipresent for all involved, or else it will never stop. The past half-century of perpetual U.S. military intervention abroad has proven this thesis to be chillingly accurate.

If you’re watching Star Trek on Paramount+, you’ll notice that the episode it has listed as “season 1, episode 1,” The Cage , isn’t exactly the show you were expecting. Instead of the famous Captain James T. Kirk, the USS Enterprise is under the command of Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter), and apart from Mr. Spock — who smiles?! — the rest of the crew is also unfamiliar. That’s because The Cage is Star Trek ’s original pilot episode, which was rejected by NBC, leading to a second pilot being commissioned with a new cast and modified tone. The Cage wouldn’t air as its own episode until 1988, but during production of Star Trek ’s first season in 1966, a budget crunch led to writer/creator Gene Roddenberry repurposing footage from the already-completed pilot into a new script in the form of flashbacks.

This fiscally minded decision endowed Star Trek and its characters with a history, instantly making the universe a bigger and more interesting place. The two-part Menagerie sees Spock, the only remaining character from the original cast, commandeer the Enterprise for the sake of its previous captain, Christopher Pike. On the way to a forbidden planet, Spock uses mysterious footage from an adventure 13 years in the past to explain his rash actions.

If you’ve already watched The Cage , then The Menagerie will seem like a glorified clip show, in which Kirk and company spend half the runtime watching a previous episode. However, before the streaming era, The Cage was usually the last episode of The Original Series that a fan would see, rather than the first. In recent years, however, The Cage and The Menagerie have taken on a new role, as bookends to the adventures of Christopher Pike, as portrayed by Anson Mount on modern spinoff Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . Strange New Worlds (as well as the second season of Star Trek: Discovery ) take place after The Cage , but before The Menagerie , allowing us to get to know Kirk’s predecessor in his own context, as well as developing the bond between Pike and Spock that will eventually drive the Vulcan to mutiny. Even without any of this context, however, The Menagerie is an exciting two-hour event, an eras-spanning mystery that will make you wonder why NBC passed on the Star Trek pilot in the first place.

Due to the production constraints of 1960s television, the original Star Trek didn’t often aim for large-scale, awe-inspiring space action. The Doomsday Machine is the closest that classic Trek ever came to “epic,” and as compelling a story as it is, it’s also Exhibit A as to why such a thing was impractical with the resources available. Though its original effects required no small amount of ingenuity (they couldn’t afford to give their Enterprise model battle damage, so they bought one off the rack from a toy store and distressed it), the results look mighty corny on a modern high-definition television.

Still, the episode gained fame as boasting the largest-scale action of the series, as the Enterprise teams up with her badly damaged sister ship, the USS Constellation, to take on a huge planet-eating weapon. It also presages a theme that would become common in Star Trek feature films , as the Constellation’s grief-stricken Commodore Matt Decker (guest star William Windom) embarks on a foolhardy quest for revenge against the monster that bested him. (Trek would revisit Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek: First Contact .)

The episode still works in a cheesy B-movie sort of way, which some fans would argue is the way it should still be enjoyed. However, when the series was remastered for high definition in the mid-2000s, the decision was made to recreate most of the special effects shots for the series using modern technology, since the originals were never expected to hold up to modern standards. Most of these recreations are very faithful, to the extent that uninitiated viewers might not even realize they’d been replaced. In the case of The Doomsday Machine , however, the producers and effects artists returned to the episode’s original script and attempted to realize writer Norman Spinrad’s initial vision for the space battle sequences. The team at CBS Digital doesn’t sacrifice the overall aesthetic of the series, but they do give us a peek at what The Doomsday Machine — and by extension, the entire Original Series — might have looked like with a feature film budget.  

There may be no better introduction to the character of James T. Kirk than The Corbomite Maneuver . The first episode produced after the series was picked up (though it didn’t air until later in the season), The Corbomite Maneuver finds the Enterprise at the mercy of a massive alien vessel and accused of trespassing in its territory. Unable to outrun or outgun his mysterious adversary, Kirk does what he will later become famous for doing — he cheats. Or, rather, he changes the conditions of the contest from one of technological superiority to one of cunning and guile. In the process, we get to learn a bit about how each of the main characters handles the intense stress of a seemingly hopeless scenario, contrasted against the more relatable Everyman Lt. Bailey (guest star Anthony Call). Though the action rarely leaves the bridge of the Enterprise, it is, in its own way, one of the most thrilling episodes of the series.

Moreover, The Corbomite Maneuver sets the tone for Star Trek as a series. It’s an hour of adventure that is punctuated by moments of thoughtful introspection, warm friendship, and corny jokes. Its depiction of Starfleet and the Enterprise are clearly inspired by military tradition, but the message of the episode is one of compassion and patience rather than conquest. These are scientists, not soldiers, and while they experience fear and doubt, none of their human frailties are a match for their curiosity. If this is what the future of humanity looks like, we want to be a part of it.

When Star Trek is running on full thrusters, it is equal parts silly and profound. In The Devil in the Dark , the Enterprise is sent to the aid of a mining colony where workers are being hunted and killed by an unstoppable monster made of rock. We know that the monster is made of rock because the characters say so; It looks a lot more like it’s made of spray-painted Styrofoam and a shag rug. But as the tension rises and the mystery deepens, the goofiness of the rock monster becomes irrelevant, or even a boon to the story.

Though it begins as a hunt for a merciless alien creature, The Devil in the Dark becomes a story about prejudice and the universality of what we (in our limited earthly experience) would call “basic human rights.” This message is conveyed through cheesy 1960s TV production values and some very hammy acting, but the results are pure and unpretentious, the sort of storytelling that is equally impactful on a jaded adult and a wide-eyed child.

Here in the post-post-postmodern 2020s, we’re all total pros at deconstructing genre tropes. The practice of subverting the audience’s expectations as to what kind of story they’re watching or who the good guys and bad guys are wasn’t new in 1967, either, but in the sci-fi film and television of the era, the big scary monster is usually just a big scary monster. The Devil in the Dark  exemplifies one of Star Trek ’s most enduring themes: that the unknown might seem terrifying, but if you take the time to understand it, it’s actually beautiful.

Star Trek is always science fiction, but its format offers a lot of flexibility in terms of how to interpret that genre. Even within the course of a single series or season, most Star Trek shows alternate between a variety of tones and secondary genres, from grim political drama to steamy romance, or in the case of this episode, kooky workplace comedy. The Trouble with Tribbles pits Captain Kirk and his gallant crew against their most stubborn foe yet — bureaucratic red tape. Assigned to look after a container of grain that Federation administrators insist is gravely important, the Enterprise becomes entangled in a very silly misadventure involving an invasive species of adorable, self-replicating furballs. For a captain accustomed to dealing with high-stakes diplomacy and galactic defense, this is his worst workweek ever.

As lousy a time as Kirk is having, The Trouble with Tribbles is tremendous fun. It is neither the first, nor the last broadly comedic episode of Star Trek , but it is the gold standard by which all Trek comedies are measured. Like any good Trek, it has stakes, a fun science fiction premise, and charming moments of character, but everything is set just a little bit askew, and the characters have noticed. It isn’t parody, it’s situation comedy, only a situation that you’re unlikely to find yourself in unless you’re the crew of a Federation starship. Almost every subsequent Trek series would chase that Trouble with Tribbles heat at least once ( Star Trek: Lower Decks  is basically The Trouble with Tribbles: The Series ), with varying levels of success, but the original remains an untouchable classic.

After The Cage was rejected by NBC, Desilu Studios (under the leadership of comedy queen Lucille Ball herself) took a second swing at the series, with a new cast and a faster paced action-adventure story. This second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before , introduces William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, as well as George Takei as Lt. Sulu, James Doohan as Scotty, and Leonard Nimoy’s new, more stoic interpretation of science officer Spock.

The episode sees Kirk’s friend and mentee, helmsman Gary Mitchell (guest star Gary Lockwood), bombarded with cosmic radiation that grants him increasingly godlike powers. As Gary grows more dangerous and cruel, Kirk must weigh his love for his friend against his duty to his crew. The scenario immediately establishes the dynamic between Kirk and Spock (compassionate leader versus his coldly practical advisor), though Spock’s regular debate partner, the emotionally driven Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), would not appear until Trek was ordered to series.

Where No Man Has Gone Before  is a little less fun and colorful than the episodes that followed, with a tone more closely resembling heady 1950s sci-fi films like Forbidden Planet or The Day the Earth Stood Still . In a way, it’s the classic Trek episode that feels the most like Star Trek: The Next Generation ; It’s talky, deliberately paced, just a little bit sterile. In Where No Man Has Gone Before , the galaxy is not only wondrous, but also eerie and unsettling. Had this been the tone the series stuck with, it might not have become a global sensation, but as a single episode, it stands out as one of the very best.

To some Trekkies, ranking The City on the Edge of Forever anywhere but at No. 1 is unthinkable. This time travel tale – written by sci-fi author Harlan Ellison and then heavily revised by Trek story editor D.C. Fontana — won Star Trek its first Hugo Award, and is widely considered to be the finest hour in the history of the series, if not the franchise as a whole. The episode’s legendary status is well-deserved, but we don’t quite have the heart to declare it the ultimate Star Trek episode, on account of how little of it takes place in the 23rd century or aboard the Starship Enterprise. The City on the Edge of Forever  is an outlier, and as such, naturally stands apart from the pack, giving it an edge in any conversation about Star Trek . Its placement here at No. 2 is sort of a counter to that advantage.

Make no mistake, however — despite mostly being set in New York in the year 1930, City on the Edge is Star Trek to its core. Sent back in time to correct an accidental alteration of Earth’s history, Kirk and Spock take up residence in a homeless shelter run by idealistic philanthropist Edith Keeler (guest star Joan Collins). Keeler turns out to be the key historical figure whose destiny must be fulfilled, but there’s a problem — Kirk has fallen in love with her. This romance complicates the mission, as Kirk and Spock are confronted with a grave moral dilemma with their entire reality hanging in the balance. Keeler is a visionary who believes in the beautiful future that Kirk calls home. But, in order for that future to exist, must something terrible be allowed to happen in her present? It’s an emotionally gripping tale that, if it had been told on a modern television show, would have changed its characters forever.

Star Trek is built on a central contradiction. It’s an adventure series about officers in a fleet that we are told, unconvincingly, is not a military organization, aboard a vessel that carries enough firepower to demolish a continent. It’s a show about peace in which things have a habit of blowing up. To reconcile this cognitive dissonance, one need only look to this key episode of The Original Series , Balance of Terror . In this early chapter, the Enterprise witnesses an Earth base being destroyed by an old enemy, the Romulan Empire. The Romulan ship has the ability to become invisible both to scanners and the naked eye, and attempts to escape to its own side of the neutral zone between their two territories before it can be apprehended.

The Enterprise is ordered to capture or destroy the Romulans before they make it home. Whether or not they succeed, there may be war. Kirk has his orders, and as we soon discover, so does the Romulan commander (guest star Mark Lenard), who is no happier about this turn of events than Kirk is. Throughout the episode, we cut back and forth between the action on the Enterprise and aboard the Romulan vessel, as two keen military strategists attempt to outmaneuver each other and stay alive, both locked in a struggle they’d rather had never begun.

Balance of Terror is a sci-fi twist on a submarine battle, but more than that, it’s a commentary on war, the rivalries between nations, and the wounds and prejudices they create. The Enterprise isn’t loaded with photon torpedoes because Starfleet is itching for a fight — it’s armed because sometimes it has to be, and when Kirk and his crew ride into battle, there’s nothing glorious about it. On the other side of any conflict is a person or people who have their own mission, their own values, and perhaps even their own reservations about fighting. It is not possible to avoid every fight, to preempt every war with diplomacy. But when blood is shed, there is no victory and there are no winners. There is tragedy, and there are survivors. And, finally, there’s the hope that the next time these two nations clash, they’ll be a little more willing to talk to one another.

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Which Star Trek Captain Has the Best Managerial Technique?

It’s impossible to be objective when selecting your favorite Star Trek captain. It requires making a call wrapped up in sentiment and timing. Which captain did you first encounter? Which one best reflected back to you the person you wanted to be? It’s easier to try to attempt a clear-eyed consideration of which one would be the best boss. Sure, there are captains sure to take you on wild adventures, but would you enjoy the ride if your life depended on their decision-making? On the flip side, there are captains that could get the job done without really inspiring that much enthusiasm, the Starfleet equivalent of a decent boss who clearly spends the back half of every shift with an eye on the clock.

It’s a worthwhile thought exercise, and one at the heart of Star Trek: Discovery , which focuses not on a captain but Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), a science officer struggling to work her way back from a snap judgment that ended with her in disgrace. Burnham has so far served under several captains, and the series has depicted the effect this has had on both her and the officers around her. (And, thus, has more entries below than any other version of Trek .) We considered the captains featured in various film and TV branches of the Star Trek universe, including Star Trek: Lower Decks ’ animated captain, and tried to rank them based on who would provide the best work experience — and who would be most likely to bring you back home in one piece.

12. Captain Philippa Georgiou, Mirror Universe (Michelle Yeoh)

Seen in: star trek: discovery.

Managerial style: Imperious and unforgiving, though that description is complicated by the fact that being imperious and unforgiving is baked into her main mirror universe job as emperor of the Terran Empire. (Or, more accurately, her job as Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominos of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Goergiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius.) There, she fought for and won the top spot in a kill-or-be-killed system in which might makes right, and deception and backstabbing are the norm; to that end, she expects those working under her to understand the rules of the game. In other words, she’s awful. But, on the other hand, she really seems to enjoy being awful, not to mention the fringe benefits of having clawed her way to the top (fine food, sex slaves, etc.). Those who can get on her murderous wavelength might also have a good time — for as long as it lasts.

Key career moment: When the always adaptive Emperor Georgiou made her way from the mirror universe to the prime Star Trek universe she used the opportunity to save the day after getting thrown into a battle between the Federation and the Klingons. But this wasn’t a simple heel-face turn; as always, it was more a matter of calculation than altruism. The move won her freedom from those who knew her true origins and earned her a spot in the Federation’s super-secretive deep-state operation Section 31. What could possibly go wrong?

Would she be a good boss? Put simply, working for this Philippa Georgiou, at least in the mirror universe that made her, would mean constantly fearing for your life as part of a pitiless, fascist organization hell-bent on conquering the universe with little regard for its employees’ quality of life. (Actually, when it’s all spelled out like that, it sounds like a pretty easy transition from corporate America.)

11. Captain Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs)

Managerial style: In a word, cryptic. After she’s accepted aboard the Discovery following her mutinous turn against her mentor Captain Georgiou (the prime universe one, not the evil dictator; more below), Michael Burnham spends much of Discovery ’s first season trying to figure out what’s up with her new captain, a man fond of fortune cookies and averse to bright lights and chairs. Pro: Lorca took a chance on her when no one else would. Con: He also seems kind of evil. That likelihood aside — and it’s eventually revealed that, spoiler ahead, he made his way to the prime universe from the mirror universe after somehow taking the original Lorca’s place — he commanded the Discovery with curiosity, a sure hand, and an apparent sense of fairness. Shame about all the murder and scheming.

Key career moment: The season one episode “Into the Forest I Go” captures every side of Captain Lorca as he bravely goes into battle against Klingons, questionably decides to risk the health of a crew member (and with him, the whole crew) to win the battle, then takes everyone into the mirror universe to further his scheme of galactic conquest. It’s quite a journey, and one that reveals his true self at the end.

Would he be a good boss? No, but serving under Lorca would never be boring.

10. Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey Hunter)

Seen in: star trek: the original series.

Managerial style: Glum as hell. Some behind-the-scenes info: Jeffrey Hunter’s Captain Pike was supposed to be the protagonist of the original Star Trek series. NBC passed, but gave Gene Roddenberry the unusual opportunity to make a second pilot, this one featuring the now-familiar classic series cast (with only Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock sticking around). But Roddenberry wasn’t done with Pike or the original pilot. It became central to the two-part episode “The Menagerie,” which recounts Pike and the Enterprise ’s adventures on Talos IV, home to the Talosians and their reality-bending psychic powers. Hunter’s a fine actor, but it’s not hard to see why NBC was reluctant to green-light a series focusing on Pike, who’s introduced complaining about the burden of command. “You bet I’m tired,” he tells the ship’s doctor. “Tired of being responsible for 203 lives. Tired of deciding which mission is too risky and which isn’t and who’s going on the landing party and who doesn’t. And who lives … and who dies.” He sounds ready to boldly curl up in a fetal position.

Key career moment: The signature moment for this incarnation of Pike comes at the end of the episode when, having been burned and disfigured beyond recognition, he’s allowed to return to Talos IV and live out his days in the unreal paradise he rejected years before, even though he already seemed pretty much over reality as we know it from the start.

Would he be a good boss? Spock and the others seem to respect him, so perhaps his doubts don’t interfere with his ability to command, even if working under him seems like it would make for a pretty weary trudge through the cosmos.

9. Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula)

Seen in: star trek: enterprise.

Managerial style: Archer’s chill, which is both his greatest strength as a leader and occasionally his greatest weakness. A former Boy Scout, lifelong water-polo enthusiast, and caring dog owner, Archer sometimes seems like he’s happy enough to be exploring the stars but might be even happier if he was just hanging out and shooting the breeze with some pals. This might be more impression than reality; Star Trek lore has him going on to become a decorated admiral and to be regarded as one of the greatest explorers in the early days of Starfleet and he certainly does a lot of exploring during the show’s four-season run. But Scott Bakula rarely plays him as a man who has greatness in his future. Archer usually seems a little annoyed that the Enterprise ’s adventures have cut into his downtime. He’s not as melancholy as Jeffrey Hunter’s Captain Pike, but he occasionally seems just as checked out. Nonetheless, he was always good in a crisis, and could be a surprisingly shrewd diplomatic. It just always seemed to take a major event to stir his interest.

Key career moment: In the second-season episode “A Night in Sickbay,” Archer hangs out with his ailing dog Porthos when he should be tending to his diplomatic duties. It borders on dereliction of duty, even if it is pretty endearing. It’s also a pretty good encapsulation of how Archer’s mind works.

Would he be a good boss? Sure. Probably. Why not? He’d be okay enough.

8. Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine)

Seen in: star trek , star trek into darkness , star trek beyond.

Managerial style: If you like predictability, order, rules, regulations, and military precision, the last place you’d want to be is the Kelvin Universe Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk. Chris Pine’s just-getting-started Kirk is young, impetuous, and brilliant — but mostly young and impetuous. It’s smart work, playing like the Kirk we know from the original Star Trek run before any of the rough edges had gotten sanded off. Pine’s Kirk is a lot of fun to watch, but it also seems like serving under him would be terrifying most of the time.

Key career moment: Forced to choose between rescuing an alien race and violating the Prime Directive in the opening scenes of Star Trek Into Darkness , Kirk barely seems to consider it a choice at all. It’s just the first of many times he breaks the rules over the course of the film (plus its predecessor and successor). Sure, it all works out (even if Kirk does briefly wind up dead later in the movie), but it could have gone horribly wrong. This Kirk commands from the gut, occasionally while listening to Beastie Boys. He’s cool and fun, but…

Would he be a good boss? … Do you really want to work for a Starfleet captain best described as “cool” and “fun” while exploring the furthest reaches of a dangerous universe?

7. Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis)

Seen in: star trek: lower decks.

Managerial style: Directness defines Captain Freeman’s command style. She knows exactly what she wants and she’s not afraid to ask for it, sometimes forcefully. She’s no-nonsense but not in a power trip–y way. She just wants things to run smoothly even if experience has taught her that it never does. (Or, at least it never does onboard the second-tier U.S.S. Cerritos , the California class starship she commands.)

Key career moment: Commanding a ship on which her gifted-but-rebellious daughter, Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), is serving as an ensign has been a continual challenge for Captain Freeman, forcing her to balance her duties as captain against her concerns as a mother. She’s mostly opted to model good behavior for her daughter by following the rules of Starfleet. In Lower Decks ’ third-season premiere, Mariner and her pals take desperate, and illegal, measures to clear Captain Freeman of a crime she’s been wrongly accused of. Ultimately, the system works, making Mariner’s misadventures unnecessary. Mother/Starfleet knows best.

Would she be a good boss? Probably. She’s terse but fair and clearly knows what she’s doing. But as the head of a ship prone to animated high jinks, it’s tough to judge Captain Freeman against other Star Trek captains. Her informed, steady-handed command doesn’t always work in her favor when dealing with some of the cartoonish absurdity the Cerritos keeps encountering. On the other hand, nothing truly terrible ever happens to those under her command, so serving on the Cerritos would likely be one of Starfleet’s safer assignments.

6. Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner)

Seen in: star trek: the original series , star trek: the motion picture, star trek: generations.

Managerial style: You’re probably better off working for the slightly older Kirk played by William Shatner in Original Series and its accompanying film series. (Okay, he’s significantly older in the film series.) This Kirk hasn’t lost the spirit evident in the younger Kirk, only it’s now tempered — at least a bit — by experience. Working for this Kirk isn’t without dangers of its own, particularly if you’re wearing a red uniform. He’s perfectly willing to send an away team into danger. Just as often, however, he’s the one leading the team, and it’s hard to underestimate the esprit de corps created by a leader willing to put himself in harm’s way mission after mission. Prepare to work hard, and maybe die, but feel like you’re part of a mission that could change the universe for the better.

Key career moment: Prepare also to listen to speeches. Kirk is a man of action and a man of romance, but above all, he’s a man of ideals who’s willing to go to great lengths to protect those ideals. But first, he’ll try to persuade his opponents with words. In “The Omega Glory,” for instance, Shatner’s Kirk lectures the primitive residents of a planet whose development paralleled Earth until it took a wrong turn on the glories of the U.S. Constitution, and he does it one emphatic syllable at a time: “We. The People …” Etc.

Would he be a good boss? Chances are you’d love working for Kirk up to the moment he got you killed.

5. Captain Philippa Georgiou, Prime Universe (Michelle Yeoh)

Managerial style: Collegial but firm, the prime universe Georgiou might rank even higher on this list if we had a large sample of what she was like as a captain. In the early episodes of Discovery she appears to be competent, respected, quick on her feet and close to her crew, especially Michael Burnham.

Key career moment: But not apparently close enough to stop Burnham from committing a mutinous act that she deems necessary to prevent a war with the Klingons. Whether this is a failure on Georgiou’s part — a missed chance to take a key suggestion from a subordinate — or overzealousness on Burnham’s remains a question left open by Georgiou’s subsequent death.

Would she be a good boss? It seems like she would, especially since her death continues to haunt Burnham throughout the series. On the other hand, maybe listen to your trusted shipmate when she says she knows what she’s talking about?

4. Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks)

Seen in: star trek: deep space nine.

Managerial style: Firm, fair, and perpetually distracted. Burned out on Starfleet life after losing his wife in the Battle of Wolf 359, Sisko only reluctantly takes command of Deep Space Nine, a space station located close to a galactic hot spot near a wormhole and, until shortly before he assumed command, ruled by the Cardassians. But Sisko soon finds himself drawn into the leadership of the station and the politics of the region when the spiritual leader of nearby Bajor names him the Emissary of the Prophets. It’s all a lot to balance, even before new adversaries start to show up from the Gamma Quadrant — and on top of it all, Sisko has to serve as a single father to a teenage son. Maybe that’s why he sometimes seems so overworked. He’s a fine, inspiring leader, but he also has a lot on his plate, running a space station while also acting as the first line of defense against enemies known and unknown — and maybe serving as messiah to a whole race of people. Many Deep Space Nine stories require Sisko to be reactive rather than proactive, whether dealing with a tavern keeper running a black market under his nose or the outbreak of a full-scale war. Strong and competent, Sisko could handle anything, but the series made him handle an awful lot.

Key career moment: Deep Space Nine introduced shades of moral grayness to Star Trek only suggested by its predecessors, never more than in the course of the protracted Dominion War arc, a dangerous conflict in which Sisko sometimes had to cheat and bend the truth for the greater good. Brooks’s performance always suggested that Sisko did a lot of soul-searching before making any decision, but once made he never looked back, the mark of a strong leader if ever there was one.

Would he be a good boss? Chances are that, apart from the occasional curt acknowledgment, you might only talk to him once or twice as he moved from one crisis to another. Still, you’d end up respecting the hell out of Sisko.

3. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart)

Seen in: star trek: the next generation, star trek: generations, star trek: nemesis, star trek: picard.

Managerial style: Picard manages like a benevolent but firm god. Speaking in an authoritative voice (the accent helps), his every directive sounds as if handed down from above. But there’s a difference between having the trappings of authority and having the record to back it up, and from his first outing on the Enterprise — in which the decision to separate the starship’s saucer section showed just how many lives were depending on him making the right choices — he makes it clear how seriously he took his job and how seriously he expects others to take theirs.

Key career moment: In some respects, the definitive Picard moment can be found in Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s final episode, “All Good Things …” in which Picard, for the first time, joined his senior staff for their regular poker game, with an expression of regret that he’d never gotten around to it before. Except in rare moments, Picard always holds himself at a distance as captain, even if Stewart’s performance always emphasizes the complex, passionate human beneath the commanding exterior. He stays remote by design and it worked, but that choice isn’t without consequences.

Would he be a good boss? Picard would be an awe-inspiring boss in every sense. You’d learn a lot working with him, even if you never felt like you truly knew him.

2. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount)

Seen in: star trek: discovery, star trek: strange new worlds.

Managerial style: In sharp contrast to Hunter’s Pike, Anson Mount plays Christopher Pike as a man who’s just happy to be out among the stars with shipmates he considers to be more like friends than co-workers. Where on Discovery, Pike was reminiscent of a cool camp counselor who just wants everyone to have a good time — as long as they follow the rules and listen to his orders — Strange New Worlds has layers of soulfulness and empathy only glimpsed before. (Maybe learning you’re headed to a horrific fate does that?) In moments of crisis, Pike comes off as unshaken but commanding, and willing to use force against his enemies when necessary. He’s easygoing until circumstances force him to be otherwise. Then he’s not. He carries himself around his crew with authority while still radiating concern. This is a self-assured, modern captain who cooks an amazing gumbo and doesn’t worry that his subordinates will lose respect if they see him wearing an apron.

Key career moment: In Strange New Worlds ’ first-season finale, Pike believes he’s found a workaround to avoid the accident in which he’ll sacrifice his well-being to save others. Then Pike is visited by an older version of himself who confirms that, yes, he can escape maiming before taking the captain on an It’s a Wonderful Life –like tour of the future created by his attempt to escape his fate. It’s not pretty and it means others will suffer in his place. So, of course, he resigns himself to his destiny without telling anyone. Always the greater good with this guy.

Would he be a good boss? Working for Pike seems like a dream, honestly. He seems like the kind of boss who’d teach you new skills and then suggest unwinding with a game of ping-pong that he wouldn’t try all that hard to win (though he totally could if he wanted to). Two seasons into Strange New Worlds, and the series keeps revealing new layers of competence and compassion. Call him No. 2 with a bullet (or a phaser blast, if that makes more sense).

1. Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew)

Seen in: star trek: voyager.

Managerial style: Democratic, at least up to a point. Forced to navigate an unexplored quadrant of the galaxy while commanding a crew made up of enemies forced to work together in an attempt to find their way home, Janeway has the highest level of difficulty of any of the captains on this list. She rises to the occasion by hearing out all points of view, reconciling opposing stances when possible, working toward compromise, then ultimately making an informed decision after listening to her crew. Stuck in an impossible situation, she stays coolheaded and thoughtful no matter how trying the circumstances become.

Key career moment: The biggest challenge faced by Janeway and the Voyager crew comes not in the form of hostile races or dwindling supplies — though those don’t help — but from the many moments that invite them to abandon their principles. In the second season’s “Alliances,” Janeway seeks a way to sidestep conflict with the Kazon (sort of the Gamma Quadrant’s dollar-store version of the Klingons). She considers first an alliance with a Kazon faction, then teaming up with the Trabe, a seemingly much more civilized race. Then, despite the wishes of a faction of her officers, she ultimately rejects both choices when she learns the Kazon can’t be trusted and that the Trabe are just as bad in their own way. It might mean taking longer to get back home, or maybe never getting home at all, but she remains determined that her crew hang on to their best selves no matter what.

Would she be a good boss? Yes. Janeway would be the sort of boss you might have to complain about behind her back, but she’s also the sort of boss you’d end up naming your first child after.

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Star Trek series ranked from worst to best

From The Original Series to Lower Decks.

• Alex Moreland
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Star Trek began nearly 60 years ago and, in that time, it’s grown from a sci-fi Western that was almost always on the verge of cancellation to a vast franchise encompassing thousands of hours of television, with countless spin-offs and sequels and prequels and reinventions along the way.

Of course, that raises the question: which of them is the best? Does Voyager win out over Enterprise? Is Strange New Worlds ’ modern take on the Star Trek pilot stronger than The Original Series ? Could Picard ever really compare to The Next Generation?

So, without further ado, here's our ranking of Star Trek series from worst to best…

Every Star Trek series ranked

9. star trek: picard.

Must a Star Trek series be 'good'? Isn’t it enough for Patrick Stewart just to have a fun time on set? If it is enough (and, honestly, it might be) then Star Trek: Picard is an obvious success.

If not, then Star Trek: Picard’s awkward first season, meandering second, and overly nostalgic third – not to mention the regular behind-the-scenes shake-ups that left each new instalment feeling like it had little interest in following coherently on from what came before it – adds up to what can only be considered the most disappointing Star Trek series in the galaxy.

More like this

8. star trek: enterprise.

Coming at the end of a near-unprecedented production run, you can forgive Enterprise for feeling a little bit tired at times.

Every so often it’d throw out a new idea, from the prequel setting it began with to its experiments with more serialised storytelling in its third and fourth season - but for the most part, Enterprise feels like it demonstrates the natural endpoint of a particular style of Star Trek on TV.

Still, though, it has its charms (including – genuinely – the theme song).

7. Star Trek: Voyager

In a lot of ways, Star Trek: Voyager is perfect for dipping in and out of – catching an episode here and there on different channels, in the middle of the third season one day, towards the end of the sixth the next, right back to the beginning again after that.

Any given episode is always going to be basically solid and reliable, whether the crew are looking for coffee in a nearby nebula or debating the ethics of separating Tuvix.

But if you’re trying to watch the series in order, it’s hard not to be distracted by how little Voyager lives up to its own premise, and wish for a show that committed more fully to the idea of a patchwork crew making a long journey home. (The solution, of course, is for Paramount Plus to add a shuffle button.)

6. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds always feels like a programme that could maybe be doing something a little more interesting at any given moment, but that focusing too much on that feeling always risks distracting from all the things it does so well week on week.

It’s got a charming cast, great production design, and its embrace of something-of-the-week episodic storytelling is a genuine breath of fresh air in a TV landscape defined by formless, binge-watch sludge.

5. Star Trek: Lower Decks

Easily the most surprising of the recent Star Trek series – who would’ve thought that a vaguely Rick and Morty-esque riff on The Next Generation would work this well?

It manages to be genuinely very funny, often quite inventive (the season 2 finale, with the Cerritos stripped of its outer hull, is one of the best moments of the current Star Trek era), and has a fantastic cast in Jack Quaid, Tawny Newsome, Noël Wells and Eugene Cordero.

More than any of the other Star Trek spin-offs, Lower Decks feels like it proves the creative value of having multiple Star Trek series running concurrently (beyond keeping Paramount Plus afloat, anyway).

4. Star Trek: Discovery

Discovery is not – and it’s never really been – a perfect series.

It’s at times overstuffed and underbaked, and the number of behind-the-scenes creative shake-ups can leave it feeling disjointed from episode to episode, never mind season to season.

But it’s also a show that’s not afraid of taking a big swing, and always feels like it’s trying to make a case for what Star Trek is and can be in the 2010s, anchored by a genuinely fantastic lead performance from Sonequa Martin-Green (arguably Star Trek’s first true lead performance).

Put another way, of Star Trek’s modern era, Discovery is the series that still feels like it’s boldly going somewhere (even if it doesn’t always know exactly where).

3. Star Trek: The Original Series

The one that started it all – and, revisiting it, you can always see exactly why it’s lasted as long as it has. It’s a show full of big ideas, and for every episode that hasn’t aged particularly well – and there are certainly some – there are two more that are obvious classics.

Deciding which, of course, is part of the fun of watching any show that’s nearly 60 years old – getting to come at it from a new angle, setting aside all the homages and the parodies and the recreations, and realising that a fan favourite episode is rubbish, the famously awful one is better than anyone ever admits, and actually William Shatner really is a great actor.

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

The platonic ideal of what Star Trek is and can be. Everything that works about The Original Series has been refined and perfected, and (most) of what comes after The Next Generation is an attempt to recreate what worked so well here.

So many of the best episodes across the whole 60 years come from The Next Generation, from The Inner Light to Darmok to The Offspring, and so many of the best characters and performances, too – not just the best of Star Trek, in fact, but the best of science fiction as a genre.

1. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

It’s the obvious answer – but sometimes these things are obvious for a reason.

Coming after The Original Series and The Next Generation, so much about Deep Space Nine feels like it simply shouldn’t work – even the most basic part of its premise, the fact it’s set on a space station in a fixed orbit rather than following a ship from one planet to the next, seems to miss the basic appeal of the show. (They’re not trekking anywhere!)

But it quickly turned out to be a stroke of genius: staying in one place meant Deep Space Nine became Star Trek’s most effective piece of drama, thoughtful and nuanced in its depiction first of post-occupation Bajor and then later of the Federation drawn into war.

Its character moments are never really matched, before or since (it’s the only Star Trek spin-off to avoid a nostalgic sequel – which feels apt, in a way, leaving Deep Space Nine in its own little corner of the galaxy).

Star Trek: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine are available to stream on Netflix .

Star Trek: Picard is exclusive to Prime Video. Sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime Video and pay £8.99 a month after that.

Star Trek: Discovery and Strange New Worlds can be found on Paramount Plus. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight.

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Original ‘Star Trek’ Enterprise Model Is Found After Being Missing for Decades

The 33-inch model surfaced on eBay after disappearing around 1979. An auction house is giving it to the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

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By Emily Schmall

The first model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the starship that appeared in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series , has been returned to Eugene Roddenberry Jr., the son of the creator of the series, decades after it went missing.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Mr. Roddenberry wrote on social media on Thursday.

For die-hard Trekkies, the model’s disappearance had become the subject of folklore, so an eBay listing last fall, with a starting bid of $1,000, didn’t go unnoticed.

“Red alert,” someone in an online costume and prop-making forum wrote, linking to the listing.

Mr. Roddenberry’s father, Gene Roddenberry, created the television series, which first aired in 1966 and ran for three seasons. It spawned numerous spinoffs, several films and a franchise that has included conventions and legions of devoted fans with an avid interest in memorabilia.

The seller of the model was bombarded with inquiries and quickly took the listing down.

The seller contacted Heritage Auctions to authenticate it, the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said on Saturday. As soon as the seller, who said he had found it in a storage unit, brought it to the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Maddalena said he knew it was real.

“That’s when I reached out to Rod to say, ‘We’ve got this. This is it,’” he said, adding that the model was being transferred to Mr. Roddenberry.

Mr. Roddenberry, who is known as Rod, said on Saturday that he would restore the model and seek to have it displayed in a museum or other institution. He said reclaiming the item had only piqued his interest in the circumstances about its disappearance.

“Whoever borrowed it or misplaced it or lost it, something happened somewhere,” he said. “Where’s it been?”

It was unclear how the model ended up in the storage unit and who had it before its discovery.

The original U.S.S. Enterprise, a 33-inch model, was mostly made of solid wood by Richard C. Datin, a model maker for the Howard Anderson Company, a special-effects company that created the opening credits for some of the 20th century’s biggest TV shows .

An enlarged 11-foot model was used in subsequent “Star Trek” television episodes, and is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum , where it was donated by Paramount Studios in 1974.

Mr. Roddenberry, who said he gave the seller a “reward” for its recovery but did not disclose the terms, assembled a group of “Star Trek” production veterans, model makers and restoration specialists in Beverly Hills to authenticate the find.

The group included a “Star Trek” art supervisor, Michael Okuda, and his wife, Denise, an artist on “Star Trek” television series and films, and Gary Kerr, a “Trek x-pert” who served as technical consultant for the Smithsonian during a 2016 restoration of the 11-foot model.

“We spent at least an hour photographing it, inspecting the paint, inspecting the dirt, looking under the base, the patina on the stem, the grain in the wood,” Mr. Roddenberry said.

“It was a unanimous ‘This is 100 percent the one,’” he said.

Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 , kept the original model, which appeared in the show’s opening credits and pilot episode, on his desk.

Mr. Kerr compared the model to 1960s photos he had of the model on Mr. Roddenberry’s desk.

“The wood grain matched exactly, so that was it,” he said on Saturday.

The model went missing after Mr. Roddenberry lent it to the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979, Mr. Maddalena said.

“This is a major discovery,” he said, likening the model to the ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz,” a prop that was stolen in 2005 and recovered by the F.B.I. in 2018, and that Heritage Auctions is selling.

While the slippers represent hope, he said, the starship Enterprise model “represents dreams.”

“It’s a portal to what could be,” he said.

Emily Schmall covers breaking news and feature stories and is based in Chicago. More about Emily Schmall

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He missed a chance to be the first Black astronaut. Now, at 90, he's going into space

Scott Neuman

Ed Dwight poses for a portrait in February to promote the National Geographic documentary film The Space Race during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption

Ed Dwight poses for a portrait in February to promote the National Geographic documentary film The Space Race during the Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif.

Edward J. Dwight Jr. has waited a long time for his ride into space.

In the 1960s, he seemed poised to become America's first Black astronaut. That dream was never realized. Now, at age 90, he's about to finally get his shot, aboard a Blue Origin rocket.

The opportunity is "a curiosity more than anything else," Dwight says. "They called me up and asked me if I was interested. And of course I said yes."

The 1st Black Woman To Pilot A Spacecraft Says Seeing Earth Was The Best Part

While Dwight won't be the first African American in space — that honor went to Guion Bluford Jr. in 1983 — he will be the oldest person to go there, edging out (by a few months) Star Trek actor William Shatner , who flew aboard a Blue Origin rocket in 2021.

For many his age, a journey into space would seem unthinkable. Dwight says he's ready to go. He points out that the rigors of his upcoming flight won't be much different from what he experienced as a test pilot in the Air Force. "I've pulled more G's than any person on Earth," he says with a wry smile. "I've been high enough to see the curvature of the Earth. ... I've been doing things like that most of my life."

Space health expert Dorit Donoviel says the 11-minute flight of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket means many of the concerns about the long-term effects of orbital and deep-space missions won't come into play.

"The main thing we worry about is the G forces," says Donoviel, director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine.

Air Force Capt. Edward J. Dwight Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital in November 1963. Getty Images/Bettman Archive hide caption

Air Force Capt. Edward J. Dwight Jr., the first African American selected as a potential astronaut, looks over a model of the Titan III-X-20 Dyna-Soar combination during a visit to Air Force headquarters in the capital in November 1963.

Those G forces cause blood to drain from the head, and that's an issue for anyone launching into space, regardless of age. However, she points out that the seats aboard Blue Origin's rocket are angled at 20 or 30 degrees. "As you're experiencing the G-forces, you're getting it through the chest, which is not affecting your head," Donoviel says. "It's distributed through the chest, which really shouldn't matter very much."

And then there's the landing. The crew capsule will separate from the booster and come down under a set of parachutes — emitting a last-minute retro thrust to reduce speed to about 2 miles per hour to cushion the impact. "It's not even a controlled crash. It's a crash," Donoviel says. Still, she anticipates no issues.

No launch date set

Blue Origin has not announced a launch date yet. But Dwight and his crewmates will train for two days before liftoff at the company's Launch Site One in western Texas, not far from the Mexico border.

The company, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, declined to disclose the per-passenger cost of the flight, but says Dwight's seat is being sponsored by Space for Humanity and Blue Origin, with additional support from the Jaison and Jamie Robinson Family Foundation . (Jaison Robinson, who flew on a previous Blue Origin flight, is on the NPR Foundation Board of Trustees.)

Leland Melvin, a retired NASA astronaut who flew two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station, says it will be good to see Dwight finally "get his due" all these years after he first trained for space.

My Big Break

From touchdowns to takeoff: engineer-athlete soared to space.

Dwight sees his upcoming spaceflight as the "climax to an interesting story."

His own story, that is. One of the earliest chapters begins at an airfield in Kansas City, Kan. As a child, Dwight's fascination with aviation led to odd jobs cleaning aircraft owned by wealthy flyers. But even then, he had greater ambitions. "I told them I didn't want their nickels and dimes for cleaning airplanes anymore," he says. "I wanted to fly." At age 8, he got his first flight.

Dwight was equally interested in art and earned a scholarship to pursue his passion after high school. His father would have none of it. Art wasn't a real career, he insisted. Dwight should study engineering instead, so he enrolled at a junior college, receiving an associate's degree in 1953, the same year he enlisted in the Air Force.

After finishing primary flight training, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Dwight also got a bachelor's of science in aeronautical engineering from Arizona State University. Discrimination was an ever-present reality in the armed forces at the time, but as a skilled pilot, he made captain.

Kennedy wanted a Black astronaut

That's when President John F. Kennedy — eager to link his administration's push for civil rights to the country's early space exploration efforts — asked for a Black astronaut.

At the time, it was test pilots who became astronauts, and there were no Black test pilots. So, Dwight was invited to attend the Air Force's newly opened Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS).

But when he got the invitation letter, he almost threw it out, Dwight recalls. His Air Force peers "got a big laugh out of it," telling him that "all those guys have swagger, and it's a club," he said, referring to the all-white astronaut corps. They said, "They are not going to let you get in that club."

"And, of course, they were right," he says.

'Black In Space' Explores NASA's Small Steps And Giant Leaps Toward Equality

It was a huge career gamble. Dwight's father, who played baseball in the Negro Leagues, was strongly opposed. His mother, though, changed her son's mind. "She said, 'You are going to do this' because she was thinking it would be uplifting the race and racial pride," he says.

Upon entering the flight-test program, Dwight experienced immediate pushback that he says was rooted in racism. He says Chuck Yeager, the famed test pilot who ran the school, resented having to accept a Black candidate. (Yeager, who died in 2020, wrote in his memoir that his only issue was Dwight's piloting skills, which he described as "average.")

Once on the astronaut track, Dwight became a minor celebrity, especially in the Black community. He appeared on the cover of magazines such as Ebony and Jet . But he also endured taunts of "Kennedy's boy" because of the president's support.

Kennedy's 1963 assassination nearly derailed Dwight's training, he says. Days after the president's death, "Lo and behold, I had orders in my mailbox shipping me out of the country," he says.

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother, intervened to keep him in the program, according to Dwight. He stayed in the Air Force for a few more years, but it became increasingly clear that he would not be selected as an astronaut. "When I found out it wasn't going to happen, that's when I left the program," he says. "I just packed my bags and left."

One of Ed Dwight's sculptures in Battle Creek, Mich., depicts escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad being led to freedom by Harriet Tubman and local abolitionist Erastus Hussey. Carlos Osorio/AP hide caption

One of Ed Dwight's sculptures in Battle Creek, Mich., depicts escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad being led to freedom by Harriet Tubman and local abolitionist Erastus Hussey.

After the Air Force, Dwight, who eventually settled in Denver, became a computer systems engineer for IBM, later opened a restaurant and worked as a real estate developer before being drawn back to his childhood love of art . Despite having little formal training, he was commissioned in 1974 to create a sculpture of Colorado's first Black lieutenant governor, George Brown.

Black History Month 2024

A child's dream to 'drive' a space shuttle propels him toward a historic nasa mission, from would-be astronaut to sculptor.

From there, his reputation as a sculptor blossomed. In 1977, he earned a master's of fine art in sculpture from the University of Denver. He specializes in sculpting historic African American figures. Among his more notable pieces are busts of jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and one of Louis Armstrong on display at the National Museum of American History.

Melvin, who is African American, says when he met Dwight, he didn't know much about his backstory. "I got a copy of his book and I read some of the stuff that he had done," he says. "He reminded me of Katherine Johnson ," the NASA mathematician who led an all-woman group of "computers," who made vital orbital calculations for the agency's early crewed spaceflights. Their story was later featured in Hidden Figures, the book and 2016 film.

Dwight and Melvin became close friends. In recent months, they have worked together on The Space Race , a documentary released last year about the contributions and experiences of Black astronauts. Dwight's own story is prominent in the film.

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Leland Melvin pose with Ed Dwight for a portrait to promote The Space Race in February at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP hide caption

NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Leland Melvin pose with Ed Dwight for a portrait to promote The Space Race in February at The Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif.

"He's not only funny, he's self-deprecating," Melvin says of Dwight. And one quality stands out. "He's got grit."

"But the other thing that his mother taught him was grace," he says. So, when being an astronaut didn't work all those years ago, "he gracefully pivoted to doing something else. It was just as impactful — just as impactful, especially in the Black community, which was his sculpture."

"He will now get his chance to do some zero-G floating and look at the planet from another vantage point," Melvin says.

Correction April 25, 2024

An earlier version of this story omitted Blue Origin as a sponsor of the flight that will take Edward J. Dwight Jr. into space.

• blue origin

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek's Best Character Has A Secret Tie To James Bond

Posted: April 26, 2024 | Last updated: April 28, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Character Has A Secret Tie To James Bond

In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard is a very serious captain, but he does have some unconventional ways of blowing off steam. For example, he was fond of the fictional 20th-century Dixon Hill novels in which the titular detective conducts investigations in one noir-style chapter after another. Picard likes to recreate the investigations in the holodeck, but that’s not the real surprise: the shocking thing is that Star Trek writers changed this detective’s name from “Dixon Steele” because they thought Picard’s detective sounded too much like Remington Steele, the successful show starring James Bond star Pierce Brosnan.

The Big Goodbye

This strange Star Trek tale goes all the way back to the first season TNG episode “The Big Goodbye.” Picard recreates a Dixon Hill investigation on the holodeck and is joined by both Dr. Crusher Data for what is meant to be a campy adventure filled with film-noir tropes. However, in what would become a major Star Trek tradition, our characters get trapped inside the holodeck with the safety protocols turned off and must play their fictional characters perfectly in what has now become a life-or-death struggle.

Homages To Film Noir

What might seem obvious (at least, if you’ve watched enough old movies) is that this episode is filled with homages to film noir, which is why it calls back to such cinematic classics as The Maltese Falcon. Originally, screenwriter Tracy Tormé wanted Trek’s fictional detective to be named “Dixon Steele” because that was the name of the lead character in his favorite Humphrey Bogart movie, In a Lonely Place. An homage to Bogart wasn’t a problem, but the Star Trek writers ultimately changed the name because it closely resembled the title of a popular show featuring future Pierce Brosnan, who would later famously play James Bond.

Remington Steele

Before he brought everyone’s favorite British spy to life on the big screen, Pierce Brosnan became a household name thanks to the success of his TV show Remington Steele. That show had a very cheeky premise: when a female private investigator had trouble finding clients due to general misogyny (it was even more abundant than cocaine back in the ‘80s), she developed a fictional male investigator named Remington Steele. You guessed it: Pierce Brosnan (who plays a con man as charming as he is conniving) embodies this persona, and he and the real investigator begin a professional partnership that eventually turns romantic.

The Name Change Made Sense

Captain Picard’s favorite fictional detective would have had the name Dixon Steele if not for the success of that other ‘80s show featuring one of the best James Bond actors. The similarities in the names Remington Steele and Dixon Steele were bad enough, but there was also the matter of the similar premise. Remington Steele was a popular show featuring a private investigator, and that show ended the same year (1987) that TNG premiered, so audience comparisons between it and the name of a private investigator on Star Trek would have been inevitable.

Our Man Bashir

While the Star Trek writers were hesitant to draw connections between Picard’s favorite detective and Pierce Brosnan’s hit show, they later had no problem heavily referencing James Bond. In the Deep Space Nine episode “Our Man Bashir,” we find out that the station’s doctor doesn’t like to play detective…instead, he enjoys a holosuite game where he is a debonair secret agent in the vein of James Bond. Less than two years after this episode premiered, Pierce Brosnan would make his debut as 007 in Goldeneye, ushering in a new golden age for a franchise that had stalled out after the disappointing box office of 1989’s Licence to Kill.

The Picard show may have ended, but weirdly enough, the franchise is very likely to channel James Bond yet again even without this Dixon Hill superfan. We don’t yet know the plot of the upcoming Section 31 movie featuring Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, but there’s a good chance we’ll see her engaging in secret agent antics as she tries to keep her activities hidden from other Starfleet personnel. If we’re really lucky, we’ll get at least one instance of Yeoh introducing herself to a character by saying “The name’s Georgiou…Philippa Georgiou.” 

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Screen Rant

Every star wars panel & actor at fan expo philadelphia 2024.

FAN EXPO Philadelphia is bringing together some of Star Wars' biggest names on Star Wars Day in this incredible three-day expo you don't want to miss.

Quick Links

Fan expo philadelphia friday panels, fan expo philadelphia saturday panels, fan expo philadelphia sunday panels, fan expo philadelphia cast appearances.

• FAN EXPO Philadelphia is featuring major Star Wars actors from May 3rd to May 5th, 2024.
• Star Wars fan-favorites including Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson will appear at FAN EXPO Philadelphia.
• Many Star Wars actors are offering photo ops and autographs at FAN EXPO Philadelphia

An incredible number of Star Wars actors, several of them some of the biggest names in the franchise, will be celebrating Star Wars Day at FAN EXPO Philadelphia , running from Friday, May 3rd to Sunday, May 5th. The three-day convention includes celebrity photo ops, celebrity autographs, panels and talks, fan meet-ups, games, and so much more. Thrillingly, Screen Rant is currently offering a FAN EXPO Philadelphia giveaway , which includes two passes for all three days of the expo. To participate, enter the giveaway here .

The expo is being held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City, Philadelphia. Passes include single-day passes for each day of FAN EXPO Philadelphia or three-day packages, with options for different age groups. Tickets for the show and more information about events can be found on the FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

GIVEAWAY: Win A Pair of 3-Day Passes to FAN EXPO Philadelphia!

• Pilot The Galaxy With Denis Lawson (7:00 PM EST - Theater #2)
• Clone Wars And Rebels Unite (7:45 PM EST - Main Theater)
• A Conversation With Cameron Monaghan (11:45 AM EST - Main Theater)
• Using The Force To Create Great Star Wars Art (12:30 PM EST - Creator Stage)
• This Is The Way: A Q&A With Armorer Emily Swallow (1:00 PM EST - Theater #2)
• Hayden Christensen And Rosario Dawson: A Galactic Reunion (7:30 PM EST - Main Theater)
• A Seasoned Warrior: Meet Gina Carano (1:45 PM EST - Main Theater)
• Jedi Games With Matt Lanter And James Arnold Taylor (2:00 PM EST - Theater #2)
• All About Ahsoka With Eman Esfandi, Natasha Liu Brodizzo, And Diana Lee Inosanto (2:45 PM EST - Main Theater)

Anakin Skywalker Actor Hayden Christensen

Fan-favorite Anakin Skywalker actor Hayden Christensen will be spending Star Wars Day in Philadelphia at FAN EXPO. Christensen will appear on Saturday, May 4th exclusively that weekend, and he is offering photo ops, autographs, and a panel talk. Excitingly, Christensen's photo ops can be taken with him or as a group photo with Ahsoka Tano live-action actress Rosario Dawson , as the perfect master and apprentice team-up.

The Q&A with Christensen will also happen with Dawson, and the two will speak about the Ahsoka show, the Force, and Star Wars in general. Ticket prices for Hayden Christensen events can be found on his FAN EXPO Philadelphia celebrity page. Notably, the panel with Christensen and Dawson does offer free general admission, but space is limited. Gold tier and silver tier guaranteed seating are available for a fee.

Ahsoka Tano Live-Action Actress Rosario Dawson

Like Hayden Christensen, Rosario Dawson will only be attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Star Wars Day. She will also offer autographs and photo ops and will be participating in the Q&A with Christensen. Dawson also offers a variety of photo ops. In addition to taking photos with Hayden Christensen, Dawson will also take photos solo or team up with Ahsoka Tano voice actress Ashley Eckstein for the complete Ahsoka experience, and she will be offering photos with her Jedi apprentice from Ahsoka , Sabine Wren actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo.

Tickets to Dawson's various events during the expo can be purchased on her FAN EXPO Philadelphia celebrity page . This convention truly does offer an incredibly unique Star Wars experience, as these guest details make clear. Not only does the event take place on Star Wars Day, but also myriad Star Wars celebrity combinations are available for the photo ops.

Sabine Wren Live-Action Actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo

Alongside her on-screen Jedi Master, Natasha Liu Bordizzo will attend FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Saturday, May 4th; however, she will also be returning the next day , Sunday, May 5th. In fact, the actress will be joining a very exciting panel alongside Ezra Bridger actor Eman Esfandi and Morgan Elsbeth actress Diana Lee Inosanto, both from Ahsoka , that Sunday. Natasha Liu Bordizzo will not be offering autographs, but she will be offering solo photo ops or photo ops alongside Dawson or Esfandi. More information can be found on her FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

Natasha Liu Bordizzo debuted as live-action Sabine Wren in the Ahsoka show just last year, and she stepped into the role beautifully. It's thrilling to see that even the newer Star Wars cast members are taking part in FAN EXPO Philadelphia. In fact, it's particularly exciting that so many Star Wars actors are coming together for the convention, offering completely unique experiences to engage with a significant number of cast members from shows like Ahsoka and Star Wars: The Clone Wars .

Even the newer Star Wars cast members are taking part in FAN EXPO Philadelphia.

Ezra Bridger Live-Action Actor Eman Esfandi

Like Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Ezra Bridger live-action actor Eman Esfandi will be attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Saturday and Sunday . However, Esfandi will be offering autographs. Esfandi will also be offering a number of photo ops. Along with solo photos, Esfandi will also be posing for photo ops alongside fellow Ahsoka actress Diana Lee Inosanto, who plays Morgan Elsbeth in the show, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Interestingly, Esfandi will also be posing with Cameron Monaghan, the voice actor for Cal Kestis in the Star Wars video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor .

Esfandi will also participate in the panel alongside Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Diana Lee Inosanto. Like Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Esfandi debuted as the live-action actor for his character in Ahsoka . The links for the many opportunities Esfandi is offering can be found on his FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

Ahsoka Tano Voice Actress Ashley Eckstein

Rosario Dawson picked up the Ahsoka Tano torch brilliantly, but audiences first fell in love with Ashley Eckstein's portrayal in The Clone Wars and in Star Wars Rebels . The Ahsoka voice actress will be in attendance every day of FAN EXPO Philadelphia , and she too will be offering a variety of photo ops. In addition to solo photos and photos alongside her Ahsoka counterpart Rosario Dawson, Eckstein is offering a photo op titled "Clone Wars Quad" with fellow Clone Wars voice actors James Arnold Taylor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Matt Lanter (Anakin Skywalker), and Dee Bradley Baker (Captain Rex).

Eckstein is a particularly excellent Star Wars actress to meet with at the expo, as she has been incredibly vocal about her love for the character and the franchise. Eckstein is also the founder of the company Her Universe, a fashion and lifestyle brand that sells incredible clothing, accessories, and other items for franchises and fandoms, Star Wars included. Additional information can be found on Eckstein's FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

Visit the Her Universe website to explore Eckstein's unique fashion company.

Morgan Elsbeth Actress Diana Lee Inosanto

Morgan Elsbeth Actress Diana Lee Inosanto will attend FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Star Wars Day and the following day, Sunday, May 5th . Although Diana Lee Inosanto debuted as Morgan Elsbeth in The Mandalorian , she and her character were given significantly more screen time in Ahsoka . In fact, it wasn't until Ahsoka that Star Wars revealed Morgan Elsbeth's origins as one of the Nightsisters of Dathomir , the franchise's Force-sensitive witches. Excitingly, Inosanto will be coordinating with several of her Ahsoka co-stars during FAN EXPO Philadelphia.

In addition to solo photo ops, Inosanto will offer photos alongside Ahsoka castmate Eman Esfandi. She will also be signing autographs and, perhaps most thrillingly, co-hosting the panel about Ahsoka alongside Eman Esfandi and Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Additional information on where and when to meet Inosanto can be found on her FAN EXPO Philadelphia celebrity page .

The Armorer Actress Emily Swallow

Emily Swallow, the actress who portrayed the Armorer in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett , will attend every day of FAN EXPO Philadelphia. Swallow will be offering solo photo ops and will be signing autographs for each day she attends. Swallow is also participating in a Q&A titled "This Is The Way: A Q+A with The Armorer Emily Swallow" on Star Wars Day, during which she will discuss her experiences with The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian .

As the Armorer, Emily Swallow's character refuses to ever remove her Mandalorian helmet, just as Din Djarin (mostly) does. This makes the fan expo an even more unique opportunity to capture an image with the woman behind the mask. Additional information on Emily Swallow's appearances at the expo can be found on her FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

Wedge Antilles Actor Denis Lawson

Wedge Antilles actor Denis Lawson is the only original Star Wars trilogy cast member attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia , making his appearance particularly exciting. Wedge first appeared in A New Hope as an ace Rebel pilot working to destroy the Death Star, solidifying his spot as an iconic part of Star Wars history. Additionally, Lawson is part of a significant Star Wars family connection as the real-life uncle of Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor.

Lawson will attend every day of Fan Expo Philadelphia and will be offering solo photo ops each day. Lawson will also be participating in a talk titled "Piloting the Galaxy with Denis Lawson" on Friday, May 3rd, at 7:00 PM EST. The conversation is sure to be entertaining and insightful, and it won't be one to miss. Denis Lawson's complete expo information can be found on his FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

Cara Dune Actress Gina Carano

Gina Carano portrayed Cara Dune, a former shock trooper fighting against the Empire in the Dark Times and Din Djarin's close friend in The Mandalorian in season 1 and season 2. The actress will be attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Star Wars Day and on Sunday, May 5th. On both days, Carano will be offering solo photo ops and autographs. Additionally, she will be hosting a talk titled "A Seasoned Warrior: Meet Gina Carano" on Sunday, May 5th at 1:45 PM EST.

The conversation will include discussions of MMA fighting, Deadpool , and The Mandalorian , and is sure to be full of intriguing information. Carano has a fascinating history as a former MMA fighter, and she portrayed the antagonist Angel Dust in the first Deadpool movie. More information on Carano's FAN EXPO Philadelphia appearances can be found on her celebrity page .

K-2SO Voice Actor Alan Tudyk

Alan Tudyk's face might not be as familiar as his voice to some Star Wars audiences, as Tudyk voiced the droid K-2SO in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . K-2SO was highly beloved in Rogue One because of his comedy, which Tudyk's delivery was absolutely key to. In fact, this will have been no easy feat, not only because he was able to act on voice alone but also because Rogue One is such a crushing movie, depicting the demise of multiple Rebels. Tudyk will be attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia on Saturday, May 4th, and on Sunday, May 5th.

Tudyk will be offering autographs and solo photo ops each day. Additionally, Tudyk will be participating in a conversation titled "All the Voices of Alan Tudyk" on Saturday, May 4th, at 3:45 PM EST, no doubt discussing his time as K-2SO among his other previous roles. Additional information about Alan Tudyk's FAN EXPO Philadelphia appearance can be found on his celebrity page .

Cal Kestis Voice Actor Cameron Monaghan

One particularly exciting name among Star Wars actors who will be attending FAN EXPO Philadelphia is Cameron Monaghan, the voice actor behind Cal Kestis. Cal Kestis is the protagonist in the Star Wars video games Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor , set between the prequel and original trilogies, during the Dark Times. Monaghan will be attending Fan Expo Philadelphia on May 4th only.

On May 4th, Monaghan will offer both photo ops and autographs. In addition to solo photo ops, Monaghan will excitingly be teaming up with Ahsoka's Ezra Bridger actor Eman Esfandi, ensuring that those photos will be quite unique. Moreover, Monaghan will be giving a talk titled "A Conversation with Cameron Monaghan," which will span his full acting history, and Jedi Survivor is among those to be discussed. More information can be found on Monaghan's FAN EXPO Philadelphia page .

ALL STAR WARS MOVIES AND TV SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+

Entertainment | C2E2: Our 9 best bets for 2024, from…

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Entertainment, entertainment | c2e2: our 9 best bets for 2024, from people-watching to prom.

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo — aka C2E2, held appropriately at McCormick Place, Chicago’s own matrix of architectural puzzlement — returns this weekend. It’s the 15th edition, and the nice thing is not much has changed: If last year was any measure, it’ll still be exhaustingly large, still crowded on Saturday, likely to drain your paycheck, will be studded with celebrities (who themselves will pick your wallet at around $65 to $110 an autograph) and is still a window into contemporary fan culture.

But for a moment there, the future looked bleak — like zombie apocalyptic.

After a couple of pandemic years, the comic con industry seemed fated for extinction, doomed by its own model: Would Lou Ferrigno insist on seeing my vaccine card before hugging? Was every cosplaying Justice League destined to meet in the Hall of Zoom now? The smarter artist-focused geek gatherings like C2E2 (and the indie comic-centric CAKE con in August) stayed vital for a simple reason: In a fractured digital world, this audience still needs physical space to meet — and a runway for showing off its creativity.

Inevitably, social media doesn’t cut it.

“I feel like we came out the other end of the pandemic with the stock up on these things, and their communities eager for in-person conversations,” said Brien McDonald, vice president of content for ReedPop, Connecticut-based producers of C2E2 as well as New York Comic Con and Star Wars Celebration. At the end of each C2E2, he said, the company conducts scores of conversations with attendees, and what they have decided was the future looks like a cocktail party. With Pokemon cards and cosplay workshops.

“Goofy as this sounds, what we say within the company now is, focus on friends.”

With that in mind, here’s a quick list of best bets for C2E2 2024:

1. The heart of C2E2 is people-watching. Specifically, the cosplay — the intensely realized uniforms of latex, the inventive alternatives to Hollywood CGI and robotics, the remarkable number of people who still want to dress as the Joker or Harley Quinn. It all builds to the Cosplay Central Crown Championships on Saturday. (And that’s a scene.)

2. C2E2 Prom,  Friday at 8 p.m. This is a cute idea, launched for the first time in Chicago after ReedPop’s success with two nerd proms at its Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. Costumes are very encouraged. There will be photo backdrops and of course, there’s a theme: 15 Years of Fantasy in Chicago. Admission is included with the ticket.

3. Josh Brolin. Guest of Honor. Straight off “Dune Part 2” and a memorable guest spot on “Saturday Night Live,” with a memoir coming this fall — not to mention, still feared as Thanos, the best villain in the Marvel movies. He’s signing for $200 a pop, but on Sunday (included with your ticket), he’s also doing a great big Q&A with the audience.

4. Maya Hawke. One of the best parts of C2E2 is the inclusion each year of a star just before superstardom (Chris Hemsworth, Steven Yeun, Millie Bobby Brown) and this year that’s Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, singer-songwriter, costar of “Stranger Things,” soon to play Flannery O’Connor in “Wildcat,” directed by her father. She’s signing Saturday and Sunday, and doing an audience chat on Sunday.

5. Horror is the new sci-fi. A generation ago, it would have been heresy to host a comic con without bowing repeatedly to “Star Trek,” the prototypical nerd-con topic. So it likely says a lot about the world right now that the hopefulness of science fiction is being replaced by the survival narratives of horror. Here’s some proof: Many, many panel discussions on horror as a growing literary, comic book, film and podcasting genre, including a conversation with Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright of the original “Alien” and several appearances by James Tynion IV , reigning paranoid god of horror comics.

6. Hollywood reunions. “Alien” aside, there are also lots of cast reunions, including “Hannibal,” “Star Wars: Rebels,” “Clerks,” “One Tree Hill,” “Rick and Morty” and the film “She’s All That” (via photo sessions, with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachael Leigh Cook).

7. Stage bound. One curious corner of C2E2 has been its dedication to workshops on theater and improv. This year, there are panels on using superheroes and Dungeons & Dragons in improv, as well as a conversation among three mainstays of the Annoyance Theatre: Mick Napier, Jennifer Estlin and Susan Messing. Also, if you’re experiencing costume malfunctions, DePaul University’s theater department has a prop repair booth.

8. Darren Criss. Speaking of theater, stage and TV actor Darren Criss — whose theater group Team StarKid was based in Chicago for a while — is back to chat “Glee,” “American Crime Story” and probably his recent off-Broadway turn in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

9. Meet-ups. The best lesson of C2E2: If you’re into something, someone else is too. Check C2E2’s website: There are meets all weekend around McCormick for fans of Scott Pilgrim, Studio Ghibli, “Our Flag Means Death,” Tamagotchi, “Dune.” Ad infinitum.

C2E2: The 2024 Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo runs April 26-28 at McCormick Place South, 2301 S. Martin Luther King Drive; tickets from $70 at www.c2e2.com

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