Let's cut to the chase: Season 3 of Star Trek, for a variety of reasons, is the black sheep of the Original Series. Whether it suffered creatively because the show was moved to another night (Friday), had a new showrunner (Fred Freiberger) and little Gene Roddenberry input, or simply got too much Sixties in its system, the fact remains that terms like "less than stellar" are frequently bandied about when referring to what would become the show's final season. That said, there are some bright lights in the season that fans cherish, if not for their quality, then for their memorable campiness.

Below is our brave attempt to discern the red giants from the red dwarves, to separate the supernovas from the black holes as it were, of the third season. We're not necessarily listing the "best," but rather rating certain episodes on the cultural cachet they have garnered over the years. We'll conveniently overlook the unmentionables ("And the Children Shall Lead," "The Mark of Gideon" ... ugh), the well-intentioned problem children ("The Empath," "The Paradise Syndrome" ... "I am Kirok!!") and the simply unremarkable ("The Lights of Zetar," "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" ... but gotta love that title!).

Remember, you can comment and rate each episode yourself on the corresponding episode page. We know you have your own thoughts, so please share them!

Spock's Brain
This episode is perhaps the most infamous of the entire Trek franchise. Depending on who you talk to, there aren't enough superlatives to describe its silliness, or enough vitriol to supply its diminution to the bottom of the Trek barrel. Kicking off Season 3 when it aired in 1968, viewers were no doubt mystified by its strangely ill-conceived plot. By the end of the episode, one could be forgiven for thinking that go-go dancers would break out into song, only to be part of some hallucinogenic dream. It was of its time, surely, and one that stays forever in 1968, never moving beyond its era like the best of Trek always does. Perhaps this is why "Spock's Brain" is viewed almost as a museum piece, one that garners a snickering smile more often than an exasperated gasp. Its intrinsic value as such is not lost on the powers that be: it has been staged in Southern California, at the Irvine Improv, as a word-for-word stage play ... with only a slight bit of exaggeration. It's a fun night out!

The Enterprise Incident
Espionage, Star Trek style! It's a rare thing to see Kirk on a covert mission, even better when we get to see the captain in full Romulan attire and facial features (a trick repeated in later Treks — Picard as a Romulan, Sisko as a Klingon and Janeway as a Borg), and even more rare is seeing Spock have a seduction scene! (Which he does with the Romulan commander ... who says Vulcans don't bluff?) "Enterprise Incident" is one of the true highlights of the season, giving us only our third run-in with the Romulans, one of the great iconic adversaries of the Trek universe. Good plotting, great intrigue, interesting character interactions ... what's it doing in this season?

Spectre of the Gun
A personal favorite from the third season, "Spectre" offers up some great sci-fi: the half-realized set, the mind games, and the atmosphere all go to make this episode something of a classic in Trek minor. When aliens pull a vision of the Old West from the minds of the crew, the landing party has to reenact the shootout at the OK Corral. Trivia: It was the first episode produced for the final season, but the sixth episode to air.

Day of the Dove
Ah, the Klingons are back. Like a breath of fresh air, the Klingons provide that wonderful sense of impending violence and dread that make them such dependable foes in the Original Series. What is great about this episode is the underlying message, that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. When a hatred-feeding cloud creature disrupts things aboard the Enterprise and instills hostility in the two crews, a seed of cooperation is sewn between the two antagonistic cultures, serving as yet another great metaphor for life and how to live it. It's scary how easily we can be manipulated to fear and hate, but once we become aware of it, we can choose to rise above it.

The Tholian Web
With some of the best special effects done in the Original Series (it garnered an Emmy nomination), "The Tholian Web" provides us another dollop of crunchy sci-fi goodness. The Tholians, unseen except for a fuzzy figure on the viewscreen, are formidable in their xenophobia and entrap trespassers. Ships such as the Enterprise and the Defiant get caught in this trap, a kind of galactic web of energy capable of destroying them. The main plot of the story is the ship in peril, whilst Kirk has been trapped on the crippled Defiant, which is in a no-man's land of space called "interphase." The touching Is-Kirk-Really-Dead scenario and its effect on the crew and their relationships provides an uncommonly potent emotional thrust.

Plato's Stepchildren
The kiss! Sensational in its day, "Plato's Stepchildren" is pretty tame stuff by today's standards. The kiss, by the way, was an interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura and, let's just say, this didn't play so well in some parts of the country. Over the years, Star Trek has crossed a couple of kissing barriers, the other being when Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn, two female characters, had a sort-of-same-sex kiss on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in "Rejoined." Some people protested then too. Well, gosh, the world is still here in spite of these scandalous kisses. Time to get over it!

Let that Be Your Last Battlefield
Some call this perfect science-fiction. Armin Shimerman in particular has said so on several occasions. Some see it as absurdly obvious preachiness. But there's a very calculated reason for its shameless absurdity. What is more absurd than judging a man by the color of his skin, or by which side of his skin has the color? Love it or laugh at it, you have to admit this is one of the most representative episodes of the franchise, and of the very thing Gene Roddenberry was trying to get across.

The Way to Eden
Two words: hippie jam! If you think Vulcans don't have rhythm and soul, then you would be wrong. Spock, when given the chance, can rock the house with his Vulcan lyre, as he did when he jammed with a group of wayward space hippies pursuing a mythical Eden as espoused by the leader, Dr. Sevrin. Over-the-top Sixties metaphor (hardly even a metaphor!), but who doesn't fondly remember "Herbert!" or "Reach!" and smile at the strains of "Yea Brother..."?

The Savage Curtain
This was not a great episode — jeez, how many times do humans have to justify themselves to some haughty superbeing? But what's significant about this installment is the amount of Trek canon established which has provided great storytelling fodder in subsequent incarnations. "Surak" was introduced here as the father of Vulcan philosophy, and was reincarnated in the recent Enterprise Vulcan Reformation trilogy (specifically, "Awakening"). "Kahless the Unforgettable" was a similar messianic figure from Klingon history introduced here, referred to often in TNG and DS9 (particularly "Rightful Heir"). There are rumors that Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto plans to resurrect "Colonel Green" in a future story. What is most memorable about this episode, though, is that image of Abe in his Lincoln Memorial chair appearing on the viewscreen.

All Our Yesterdays
Two words: Mariette Hartley. Yowza. Also, Mr. Atoz was one of the best-named characters in Trek. (He was a librarian ... A-to-Z ... Huh? Huh?) Overall, though, this was a highlight of the third season, a great sci-fi premise — the abilitiy to send people from the present far into the past to escape the impending destruction of their planet — with interesting explorations of the characters, especially Spock.

Turnabout Intruder
Oh, Bill, you crack us up. As if we didn't enjoy your acting method enough already, you pull a new trick out of the hat and portray a rageful woman with élan. "You will obey my orders!! I will charge you with mutiny!" It was a wonderful culmination of three seminal years of Shatnerian performance, leaving an indelible imprint on our culture. We would love to see where things would have gone under a fairer ratings system. To quote the final words of the final episode: "If only, if only..."