Star Trek

duplicated thread! honeybee beat you to it.
and where's YOUR list, Yx?

Dueling posts....ha....didn't think you'd take the dare.

In a Mirror, Darkly I & II
Bound
Babel One
United
The Aenar
Borderland
Cold Station 12
The Augments
Proving Ground
Zero Hour

Okay, so on first run I came up with 36. I omitted most of season 4 only because - that was almost a perfect season. The best season of Trek I can think of. It's with great sorrow that the show was canceled after such greatness.

Dear Doctor - it was this or "The Communicator". But a prewarp civilization had to appear. Though "Civilization" was a runner up.

Detained - Archer and Mayweather have their preconceptions of the Suliban challenged. They interfere with an alien culture. Note: "Desert Crossing" is being taken off the list because of the top 10 theme, but I watch these two episodes together. "Desert Crossing is great because Archer's actions catch up to him.

Vox Sola - a perfect Star Trek episode. Everyone has something worth while to do and problems arise from the inability to communicate with a truly different alien life form. This is one of my all time favorite episodes of Star Trek, side by side with "Explorers" from DS9.

Minefield - the Romulans!!! I drove 2hrs and back to a family member's house to watch this episode the night and time it originally aired. It's going to be on here. Note: "Dead Stop", which is an equally great episode, got the boot for the same reasons as "Desert Crossing".

Dawn - again a perfect episode. Another exercise in communication. A plus, Trip learns to watch his mouth in diplomatic situations.

Stigma - perfect. Like TOS, a story with meaning behind it, using a well known technique embedded in lore - the Vulcan Mind Meld.

Canamar - It feels like an Original Series Episode. A lot of them do actually, but I love Archer's report at the end.

Cogenitor - any need to explain?

Stratagem - Archer's tactics are clever.

Bound - the exception of season 4 omissions - as if Orion Slave Women could be omitted. And the turn of the episode - the Orion Males being the slaves rather than the women - brilliant!!! Forty years we've lived with an assumption that the writers turned on its head. Not only did the crew learn something, but the audience did too!! That's STAR TREK. Speaks to the Original Series.

Quote (lostshaker @ July 28 2009, 8:09 pm)

Detained - Archer and Mayweather have their preconceptions of the Suliban challenged. They interfere with an alien culture...Desert Crossing is great because Archer's actions catch up to him. Vox Sola - This is one of my all time favorite episodes of Star Trek, side by side with "Explorers" from DS9. Canamar - It feels like an Original Series Episode. A lot of them do actually, but I love Archer's report at the end. Bound...Forty years we've lived with an assumption that the writers turned on its head. Not only did the crew learn something, but the audience did too!! That's STAR TREK. Speaks to the Original Series.

OW--great reasoning, lostshaker! well-noted. I'd forgotten that fact about Desert Crossing. I WANTED to put Canamar on my list. Maybe next week's list...Explorers--you have most excellent taste.

copied from other thread:

okay, here goes:

Shadows of P'Jem
Shockwave Pt.II
Carbon Creek
Stigma
Judgment
First Flight
Similitude
Azati Prime
Zero Hour
Home
Terra Prime

I CAN COUNT. I'm protesting the fascist circumscription of free thought through the obsessive ordination of otherwise arbitrary criteria.

Because next week the list would be different.

YANKS - I look forward to people putting their "blurbs" next to their choices and intend to do so myself. Good idea.

Quote (grigori @ July 28 2009, 8:18 pm)

Quote (lostshaker @ July 28 2009, 8:09 pm) Detained - Archer and Mayweather have their preconceptions of the Suliban challenged. They interfere with an alien culture...Desert Crossing is great because Archer's actions catch up to him. Vox Sola - This is one of my all time favorite episodes of Star Trek, side by side with "Explorers" from DS9. Canamar - It feels like an Original Series Episode. A lot of them do actually, but I love Archer's report at the end. Bound...Forty years we've lived with an assumption that the writers turned on its head. Not only did the crew learn something, but the audience did too!! That's STAR TREK. Speaks to the Original Series. OW--great reasoning, lostshaker! well-noted. I'd forgotten that fact about Desert Crossing. I WANTED to put Canamar on my list. Maybe next week's list...Explorers--you have most excellent taste.

Thanks, grigori. Many of the episodes you listed came close to making my own list. These top 10's can be difficult. It's hard enough to debate everyone on these boards, but then to be asked to debate with oneself...

Now watch me blurb -

1) Similitude

The perfect trek morality tale, deals with ethics, cloning and sacrifice. Sim manages to be both Trip and a totally new character. This episode furthers the Xindi arc, develops the Trip and T'Pol romance, develops Archer's character, shows Phlox being a great doctor and great dad, and manages to have an exciting ship-in-peril plot. And bonus points for excellent, heart-tugging use of Porthos.  

2) Twilight

This episode deals with the great "road not taken" theme that many reset button episodes have done - but with a very fresh mechanism. And it really shows us what is at stake with the Xindi mission. It's gutsy enough - after developing Trip & T'Pol's romance all season - to shift into a T'Pol & Archer romance - and not feel forced. In the end, this also shows T'Pol, Archer and Phlox willing to sacrifice their own lives for the greater good. Bonus for showing us Captain Trip and almost Captain Malcolm. Plus Captain T'Pol, who looks great in that starfleet blue.

3) Azati Prime

More sacrifice from Archer. Plus, the final culmination of T'Pol's mental breakdown. After two and half seasons of relying on T'Pol's emotional control - she breaks down and its powerful. I'm glad she later redeems herself but that's one heck of a moment when the Vulcan cries. And the sense of doom. . .even though you know its not the end, you feel like it is.

4) Dead Stop

This is a truly original horror story from Trek. Plus a brilliant satire for anyone who has ever been stuck in a call menu loop. "Your inquiry was not recognized." Plus that ending. Best ending of an episode ever.

5) Home

Archer's broken. So is T'Pol. And then she breaks Trip's heart. But it works. Plus Captain Erika rocks.

6) The Vulcan Arc

T'Pau rocks. Political intrigue. Surak. Mind melds. T'Pol getting in touch with her Vulcan nature. All Vulcan-y goodness all the time. Plus T'Les's death is really shattering.

7) Carbon Creek

I love stand alone stories, and this is a great one. Vulcans in the 1950s. Plus it furthers T'Pol's character by somewhat explaining her fascination with humans.

8) The Forgotten

Azati Prime is the "action climax" of the Xindi arc, this is the emotional climax. Trip has to learn to forgive the enemy - not easy to do when your sister has been vaporized. This is really the heart of the season - and it shows why humanity was eventually able to help form the federation. We forgive, if not forget. And we can move forward.

9) Regeneration

The Borg are scary again. Nuff said.

10) Terra Prime

The true end to the series. Everyone gets something to do to fight the menace, which this time is from within rather than without. A great trek morality tale about tolerance and our better angels. Plus I dare you not to cry when T'Pol is consoling Trip.

Quote

It's hard enough to debate everyone on these boards, but then to be asked to debate with oneself...

But if, in the end, the result is that we all agree that there are many more than 10 good episodes....it's a beautiful thing.

Great reasons, honeybee111. I particularly enjoyed your insight into T'Pol's fascination with humans regarding "Carbon Creek". ¿

In regards to "Twilight", I always loved the mention that humans were relocating to Ceti Alpha Five. Considering this, in that alternate time line humans were doomed since Ceti Alpha 6 was only a century plus away from exploding.

I love "Regeneration" too. And the Vulcan Trilogy:

FORREST: Ambassador. Are Vulcans afraid of humans? Why?
SOVAL; Because there is one species you remind us of.
FORREST: Vulcans.
SOVAL: We had our wars, Admiral, just as humans did. Our planet was devastated, our civilization nearly destroyed. Logic saved us. But it took almost fifteen hundred years for us to rebuild our world and travel to the stars. You humans did the same in less than a century. There are those on the High Command who wonder what humans would achieve in the century to come, and they don't like the answer.

And you're right. There are many more than just 10. I find myself quoting lines and scenes of dialogue all too often.

I can't come up with only 10. Here is the list of some of my favorites in the first two seasons. I posted this on one of the other threads.

I've got so many that I really, really like. Let me see,

Broken Bow (great introduction to the crew and the ship), The Andorian Incident (especially because we meet Shran), Shuttlepod One (loved the relationship between Malcolm and Trip), Shockwave I (exciting, interesting, and I like Daniels).

Season 2 has a lot of my favorites:

Shockwave II (see above), Minefield (suspenseful, more relationship building), Dead Stop (spooky and well done), A Night in Sickbay (loved the concept, enjoyed the humor), Singularity (interesting to watch the crew obsess and to see what they obsess over), Judgement (great acting, good story, and the relationship between Archer and Kolos), Stigma (thoughtful and well acted), Cogenitor (thoughtful and well acted), Regeneration (spooky), First Flight (loved, loved, loved Archer and AG and seeing Archer and Trip first become friends).
Edited to add: The Seventh (more trust built between Archer and T'pol)

I have favorites in the next two seasons, but I'll give that some thought and post those later.

whyaduck, I agree season 2 has fantastic episodes. I've never understood why people said that season 2 lagged. Blasphemy, I scream, blasphemy!!!

Quote (lostshaker @ July 28 2009, 9:18 pm)

whyaduck, I agree season 2 has fantastic episodes. I've never understood why people said that season 2 lagged. Blasphemy, I scream, blasphemy!!!

Each season had great episodes. One can only imagine how many more incredible stories would have been told if the show hadn't been canceled.

(Hey, I think we've picked Yanks' thread as our main one forward.)

Gee, honeybee, do you share my guilty secret? scribbling down literary critiques of the episodes all these years (just in case someone ever asked?) 'Cause you have it covered pretty nicely. Poetically, too. Tx for your commentaries!

It's partly why I'd like to get some in-depth episode discussions off the ground; we've got some newer people here (I'm relatively new myself), present thread company included, who are well up to the task.