Welcome back to our Desert Asteroid Episodes feature. Over the last several months, we've received a steady stream of e-mails detailing your lists of the Star Trek episodes and/or movies you would be unable to live without if you were stuck on an asteroid with only a DVD player for comfort. With all of the live-action Star Trek now available on DVD, this idea is all the more feasible should you ever find yourself ... lost in space.
The following is just a sampling of the many dozens of responses we've collected recently. We will be doing more of these Desert Asteroid features, so please continue writing in with your own list at desert_asteroid@startrek.com.
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It's practically impossible to choose just ten desert asteroid episodes... One of the great things about Star Trek is the richness of its history and the large number of really good episodes there have been. I chose these ten because I think all of them are highly entertaining, and engaging enough to watch many times.
1. TOS - "City on the Edge of Forever" - one of Trek's best written episodes and a great example of the literary depths that televised science fiction can reach.
2. TOS - "Mirror, Mirror" - I'm sorry, but this episode is just plain entertaining.
3. TNG - "Encounter at Farpoint" - although the show may have gotten better over time, this episode still holds a nostalgic place in my heart... it was the first episode of any Star Trek series that I ever saw, and was the beginning of modern Star Trek.
4. TNG - "Chain of Command, Parts I and II" - Patrick Stewart and David Warner deserved Emmys for their performances in this two-parter.
5. TNG - "All Good Things..." - probably the perfect series finale. They couldn't have pulled it off any better.
6. DS9 - "Rapture" - an underrated gem of an episode.
7. DS9 - "Far Beyond the Stars" - profound and moving, featuring some of DS9's best acting and writing.
8. DS9 - "Trials and Tribble-ations" - a great idea, well-executed. It's worth it just for Worf's refusal to discuss forehead ridges.
9. VOY - "Bride of Chaotica!" - again, what can be more fun than this?
10. ENT - "The Andorian Incident" - my favorite Enterprise episode, a highlight of the first season. Plus, of course, it has Shran.
Cameron M., Santa Cruz, CA
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On a desert asteroid, I'd take all of TOS, most of TNG, the last 4 seasons of VOY, all of DS9 and a few ENT(for sentimental reasons mostly). But, if I could only take 10, here are my all-time favs.
1. "Devil in the Dark" ( I love that crazy Horta...looks like a giant pan pizza!) -- TOS
2. "The City on the Edge of Forever" (Edith Keeler has got to be Kirk's greatest love and Shatner plays the last few scenes with beautiful pain...clearly some of his best work. Not to mention, drug-upped McCoy, and Spock's head caught in a mechanical rice-picker--this is classic Trek!) -- TOS
3. "Patterns of Force" (How could you not love Kirk, Spock and McCoy duking it out with the copycat-Nazis?) -- TOS
4. "I, Borg" ( "I am Hugh"--'nuff said) -- TNG
5. "Past Tense" (I love that Sisko and Bashir get to take a role in a critical time in Earth's history and it's great to get more information about our beloved Star Trek Universe. Avery Brooks is great in the episode) -- DS9
6. "The Quickening" (What can I say? I love Alexander Siddig--this episode is beautifully crafted...I especially love that Bashir didn't find a cure and so he was sitting at his computer in the last scene, determined as only Starfleet doctors can be, to find that cure) -- DS9
7. "Equinox" (love the story and the idea of a "not so perfect" Starfleet ship--they took a different road from their also-stranded sister ship, Voyager) -- VOY
8. "Drive" (come on, you gotta love it--Paris and Torres get married!) -- VOY
9. "Critical Care" (I love this critique of our messed up health care system) -- VOY
10. "In a Mirror, Darkly" (Best Enterprise episode ever--I wish the entire series was about the mirror universe Enterprise!) -- ENT
Tabitha
(Continued -- click "next" for more)
