Star Trek Social Club

10571 readers

151 users here now

r/startrek: The Next Generation

Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...

Maybe a little slash fic.

New to Star Trek and wondering where to start?

Rules

1 Be constructive

All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.

2 Be welcoming

It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.

3 Be truthful

All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.

4 Be nice

If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.

5 Spoilers

Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.

6 Keep on-topic

All busmittions must be directly about the Star Trek franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.

7 Meta

Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.

Upcoming Episodes

Date	Episode	Title
11-28	LD 5x07	"Fully Dilated"
12-05	LD 5x08	"Upper Decks"
12-12	LD 5x09	"Fissure Quest"
12-19	LD 5x10	"The New Next Generation"
01-24	Film	"Section 31"

Episode Discussion Archive

In Production

Strange New Worlds (TBA)

Section 31 (2025-01-24)

Starfleet Academy (TBA)

In Development

Untitled theatrical film

Untitled comedy series

Wondering where to stream a series? Check here.

Allied Discord Server

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Searching for the "most representative" Star Trek episode (startrek.website)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

36 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

This is a great question. I like to recommend Data's Day for newbies because he sort of goes around and introduces every character, but it's a pretty unconventional episode.

I think I would go with "Doomsday Machine"!

That said, I also think Darmok would be a good fit too, the concept itself is unique in that as far as I know it's the first it was used in science fiction, but the manner in which the concept is presented "Enterprise crew encounters a problem that can't be solved with guns or technology" is pretty darn representative.

[–] rob_t_firefly 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

"Darmok" is so far the only Trek episode I've shown my spouse, because she wanted to know what the deal was with a t-shirt I had with that episode's famous line on it. It did the job, she seemed to get into it despite being only vaguely familiar with the show.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I called "Darmok" unconventional because of the two-actor stage play aspect of it, but it's a borderline case. I'll allow it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Good point! I forgot that it was mostly the two of them on the planet. It is also somewhat unusual in that there is no distinct B-plot. The events that take place in orbit are directly related.