Whenever I see a conversation along the lines of “what episode should I show my friend/partner/etc. to get them hooked on Star Trek,” the suggestions are pretty predictable - your “best” episodes that are regarded to represent the franchise at its peak.

I like to take a different approach, trying to find episodes that I feel are most representative of the series - the “average” Star Trek episode. If you show someone the “best,” there’s nowhere to go but down, and it can set someone up for disappointment.

In the case of Star Trek, I actually find this pretty difficult, and I don’t think I’ve come up with any that I feel are really good answers, so I’m taking it to the crowd: what are the most representative episodes of Star Trek.

To me, these are the boxes that probably need to be ticked:

  • Enjoyable (obviously).
  • A conventional structure that doesn’t deviate from the norm too much - this is a flexible concept, but I think it excludes things like “Darmok,” or “Tapestry,” or “In the Pale Moonlight,” which are not really conventional.
  • Any series is fair game.

What do you think? What are some “normal” Star Trek episodes that would serve as good representation of what the franchise usually is?

  • @GenderNeutralBroEnglish
    4•1 month ago

    I came here with exactly this episode in mind. I think it is representative in a few ways:

    1. It involves an alien of the week.
    2. The alien species is culturally similar to human societies we, as viewers, are familiar with.
    3. It demonstrates what the Federation is all about, including the Prime Directive, respectfully dealing with less developed civilizations, and solving problems without violence (especially when the problems are your own fault).
    4. It’s more or less self-contained. Whether this is “representative” is debatable, I guess. I think it’s a big part of Star Trek even though there’s a larger focus on season-long storylines in later series.
    • Rob T FireflyEnglish
      4•1 month ago

      “Who Watches the Watchers” is self-contained but you can also show someone “The Drumhead” after they’ve seen it. Beyond that also being a good episode for newbies as suggested elsewhere in these threads, the callbacks to “Who Watches the Watchers” nicely illustrate how threads from one story can keep affecting and enriching the show’s universe.