Favorite Star Trek Episodes

[Roy]

Heroes and Icons channel shows all five Star Trek TV series six nights a week. They're nice to have, as something to fall back on. Having seen the original series episodes so many times, I like to check ahead for my favorite episodes.

Arguably the best episode is the original pilot, "The Cage". H and I doesn't show it, but they do show "The Menagerie". Lots of neat stuff, for your mind to chew on. Apparently, too much for NBC.

It's about humanoids who have lived underground for thousands of years, after a war left the surface of their planet uninhabitable. They developed ways to share their fantasies to such a degree, that they could impose them on less powerful minds - like ours. Their intent was to use us to make their planet's surface livable again.

Somewhere, possibly in The Making of Star Trek, I read that it was unprecedented for a network to make a second series pilot. It wasn't. Just the year before, CBS turned down the original pilot for Lost in Space. It did not have either Dr. Smith, or the Robot. It was never shown. I recall seeing the pilot for what became I Love Lucy. For one thing, Lucy and Desi had a much nicer apartment. Don't know if that was ever shown, but I doubt it.

More of my favorites, later. What are yours?

[chuck]

TOS, City on the Edge of Forever, Joan Collins as Edith Keeler, Harlan Ellison wrote the script but the parts about drug addiction were written out.

TNG, The Measure of a Man, data on trail to determine if he is Star Fleet property or a sentient being

DS9, In the Pale Moonlight, Cisco's moral dilemma of bringing the Romulans into the war with the Dominion, Andrew Robinson's Garak and Stephen McHattie as Vreenak were excellent in their respective roles.

Voyager, Omega Directive, I liked Voyager the least of the franchise. With the exception of stories featuring Seven of Nine or the Doctor, most were forget-able. Year of Hell parts 1&2 had great promise but the writers didn't seem to understand the basic issue with time paradox story lines, there is no way to "fix" things. Star Gate SG-1 did a much better job with their "Ground Hog Day" episode Window of Opportunity.

Enterprise, Two parter, Affliction and Divergence where the Klingon's appearance in TOS is "explained" as a result of a retrovirus that was supposed to breed super Klingons along the lines of Khan and Doctor Phlox coming up with an antidote that includes human DNA which results in their altered appearance in the times of TOS. The human DNA would take a couple of generations to be bred out.

Haven't seen Discovery yet, only saw a few episodes of Picard but I did like what I saw.

BTW, a second pilot is less common for a one hour drama and way less common for a one hour drama for a period piece or a sci-fi story where production costs and set design/construction is a considerable investment. Big Bang Theory that aired for twelve years was significantly different than the original pilot.

[Roy]

TOS, City on the Edge of Forever, Joan Collins as Edith Keeler, Harlan Ellison wrote the script but the parts about drug addiction were written out.

Somehow, Guardian of Forever seems like a strange name for a gadget that allows crazed people to accidentally destroy the timeline. Interesting story. One of my favorites, too.

BTW, a second pilot is less common for a one hour drama and way less common for a one hour drama for a period piece or a sci-fi story where production costs and set design/construction is a considerable investment.

I saw part of The High Chaparral pilot the other day. They spent some bucks on that.

[up148]

I guess it's what we grew up on, but the 1st generation series and movies are my favorite. 2nd series with Picard and crew was good too, but something about the 1st gen. Kirk, Spock and even whiny Bones were all great to watch.

Maybe because it was so outrageous for 1965/66 when we were in the midst of the space race and nothing like it had ever been on TV. I can remember HS couples gathering at a girl friends house to watch it, very different, as we watched little TV at that time...too much else to occupy our time.

[chuck]

I saw part of The High Chaparral pilot the other day. They spent some bucks on that

I didn't get to watch this show when it was on in first run. I've been catching up on it in reruns on H&I. It was a really well done program.

My wife's family had relatives in Tucson and I have some old 8mm movies her dad took when they visited the set in Old Tucson. Interesting mixture of a backside view of TV production at that time and completely inappropriate/politically incorrect tropes for the tourist trap side of things. Show was way more progressive than the folks running the Old Tucson site. Seemed more like a theme park. The writers tried to balance out the issues facing the ranchers with the Apache and the Dons of Mexico on the south border. Show switched back to shooting in southern California to save money.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

TOS, City on the Edge of Forever, Joan Collins as Edith Keeler, Harlan Ellison wrote the script but the parts about drug addiction were written out.

Yes. Harlan's script was something that tested the times.

[Roy]

...I have some old 8mm movies her dad took when they visited [The High Chaparral] set in Old Tucson. ...Seemed more like a theme park.

In the mid-sixties, they built a Bonanza ranch house on location near Lake Tahoe. In addition to location footage, it was used as a tourist attraction. It even had a train ride:

[chuck]

Frame grab from my father-in-laws 8mm movies

A couple of "Indians" on the set of Old Tucson



Closeup of my future wife sitting next to one of the "Indians"