Top Ten "Star Trek" Episodes
The world is so full of holidays that celebrating a fictional holiday seems ridiculous. Yet, with the chaos going on around the world, the civil disturbances, the inability to see the humanity in each other, the lack of caring or understanding in those who refuse to wear masks, or the desire to confront someone merely for asking you to put on a mask for the public good, I find myself clinging more and more to the fictional series Star Trek. Yes, that makes me a nerd, but my love of Star Trek it isn’t because Star Trek is a space adventure. It is because, at its’ heart, Star Trek is the most positive vision of humanity since the concept of the Christian Kingdom of God. Within the story of Star Trek, humanity, in the 24th century, has grown out of its infancy. On Earth, there is no poverty, no war, no real disease, no greed. One of the most important descriptions of humanity comes from the film First Contact. In the film, Picard is stuck on the lower decks of the Enterprise with a woman, Lily, from the 21st century as the Borg try to seize the ship. As they try to escape, Picard explains the 24th century to Lily:
Lily: “How much did a ship like this cost?”
Picard: “The economics of the future as somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century.”
Lily: “No money! You mean you don’t get paid?”
Picard: “The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We seek to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”
Indeed, the driving force behind everyone’s lives, since they are freed from any economic worries, allows everyone to explore and live their passions both for themselves and for betterment of humanity. One of the greatest questions in Star Trek has always been, how did humanity change itself from its current state to a more generous and compassionate people? The answer finally came in the film First Contact. On April 5th 2063, following the devastating effects of global poverty (DS9’s “Past Tense”) and fallout World War III (seen in the trial from “Encounter at Farpoint”), Zefram Cochrane, an engineer, creates and launches the first warp capable space craft. In doing so, a passing alien vessel realizes that humanity will now be able to travel beyond the solar system. With that realization, they choose to make first contact. The realization that we are not alone in the galaxy changes humanity. Humanity comes together in a way we have never prior.
To celebrate this idealism and hope for humanity, today is First Contact day. I decided to “celebrate” by reflecting and selecting my favorite episodes of Star Trek. Looking over so many series, I’ve decided to complain a top ten list like those on Cine-fix where each “number” is an arbitrary category and will have runners-up. So, without further ado, here we go:
10. Comedy Episodes
While Star Trek is not often thought of as a comedy, there are certainly episodes that are comic gems. Whether it is holodeck silliness like in Voyager’s “Fair Haven” where the towns people notice the sudden changes to their environment, or when Voyager becomes a 1950’s black and white science fiction episode in “The Bride of Chaotica”. Even more recently, the wonderful comic “Crisis Point” from Lower Decks where a holodeck program becomes a satire of all Star Trek films at once, the holodeck has been a place for humor. But, let’s save the holodeck for another category.
Another category of the comedy episode often comes in the form of a side character who brings humor to the screen. Q is always great for that in any of the multiple series he appears in but perhaps never better than in “Qpid” when he transports Picard and crew to Sherwood forest. In the original series, the character of Mudd would bring a great sense of humor as a con-artist in the 23rd century. Quark and his fellow Ferengi provide brilliant comedy in “Family Business” that introduces us to his mother, or “House of Quark” where Quark joins a Klingon family, or the introduction of the Grand Nagus brilliantly in “Nagus”. But my clear choice for the best comedy episode of Star Trek comes from the adorable and always pregnant, Tribbles.
Tie: TOS “The Trouble with Tribbles” and DS9 “Trials and Tribble-ations”
No episode evokes more fun from TOS then “The Trouble with Tribbles”. Tribbles are notoriously funny. A cute version of a pest taken to the ultimate extreme. As Bones says, “The only thing I can figure out is that they’re born pregnant… which seems to be quite a timesaver.” These cute little creatures overpopulate the ship even taking over the engine and the food replicators. Kirk’s face when his food tray is nothing, but a pile of tribbles is priceless. This is not a deep episode, nor a powerful one, just an episode full of joy.
DS9’s choice to revisit this episode in “Trials and Tribble-ations” equals the original in its fun. The Klingon who was foiled by the Tribbles uses a Bajoran Orb onboard the USS Defiant to go back in time to assassinate Kirk. The poetic justice will come in the form of a bomb in a Tribble. Thus, the crew of DS9 goes undercover on the Enterprise and the Station K-7 to find the bomb and protect the timeline. Advancements in CGI allowed the show to place the actors from DS9 into old footage from the original TOS episode. One of the great revelations is why Tribbles hate Klingons. Worf, after the tribble spots him and screams, explains that they were considered a mortal enemy of the Empire. The Klingons dispatched warriors to the Tribble home world to kill them in all in the great Tribble hunt. Also, there is a more humorous and better explanation for how Klingons transformed from human looking to aliens with cranium skeletal bones. All Worf has to say when asked about the difference, “We do not like to talk about.”
9. Space Battles
Star Wars always had better special effects than Star Trek, but even with those limitations Star Trek managed to stage some incredible battles in space. In the original series, those battles were best not shown outside the ship, but inside, as two captains try to out maneuver each other. This was never done better than in the great “Balance of Terror”, which has Kirk trying to outsmart the first encounter with the Romulans in a hundred year.
Voyager for all its battles has one truly memorable episode, “Year of Hell” Part 1 and 2, that concludes with Voyager crashing into a time weapon and resetting the previous disastrous year.
For battles in space, no Star Trek series outdid Deep Space Nine. Given that Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series to use long narrative storytelling, Deep Space Nine spent several seasons exploring the themes of war through Dominion and Federation conflict, giving us such great episodes as “Improbable Cause” and “The Die is Cast” where the Romulans and Cardassian spy agencies join forces to attack the Dominion or the incredible battle to retake Deep Space Nine from the Dominion in “Favor the Bold” and “Sacrifice of the Angels”. But, if we are looking for the best space battle episode in Deep Space Nine, it wasn’t against the Dominion, but one of the oldest Federation’s foes: the Klingons. “Way of the Warrior” is an epic that stands out as one of the great episodes of Star Trek. Upon realizing in later seasons that General Martok was a Changeling, we realized how well Dominions interfered in the Alpha quadrant by fracturing the Federation/Klingon alliance.
However, there is one episode of Star Trek that stands at the forefront of space epics besting even DS9’s “Way of the Warrior”:
TNG: “Best of Both Worlds” Part 1 and 2
Some in this list will be a surprise, but “Best of Both Worlds” may be considered the best episode of Star Trek ever created. It had to find a place on this list. In terms of suspense, the battle between the Enterprise and the Borg cube pits Riker against Locutus, an assimilated Captain Picard. Even the secondary characters like Commander Shelby, the resident expert on the Borg who is gunning for Riker’s position onboard the Enterprise, add to this incredible story. The Borg are the greatest enemy that Star Trek has ever created, and this is their best episode. Sorry to all the Voyager fans who love the Bog episodes in that series, but seriously, none come close to this masterpiece.
8. Trouble in the Holodeck
The holodeck was first introduced in The Next Generation and instantly became an incredible vehicle for stories. When one can change their entire world and play out their fantasies, we get stories like DS9’s incredible “Our Man Bashir”, a James Bond-esque adventure with Bashir as the British spy and every DS9 character as a stereotypical Bond role. My personal favorite is Kira as a KGB officer with a wonderful outrageous and comic Russian accent. Another take on this idea is the western, “Fist Full of Datas”, from TNG, leading to a hysterical romantic moment between sheriff Worf and a female Data.
Then, there are the holodeck episodes where people retreat into their fantasies to avoid the world. Perhaps never better than in DS9’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon” where Nog takes refuge in a holographic Las Vegas Casino after losing his leg in the Dominion War.
Voyager expanded the idea of holograms more than any other series because one of its main characters is a hologram: the Doctor (more on him later). In “Living Witness”, we see how the holodeck transforms the teaching of history through allowing people to experience history even if they haven’t quite solved the problem of bias in teaching history. The Doctor is reactivated five hundred years after Voyager has long since left this planet and history records them as villains, not heroes.
The idea of the Doctor, or a hologram, struggling with his existence is first set up in The Next Generation episode, “Elementary, Dear Data” where Dr. Pulaski asks the computer to create a holographic character who could defeat Data. The holodeck programs Professor Moriarty with consciousness, realizing that he is a hologram, forcing him to question his own existence.
But could there be a better episode with the holodeck, which combines all of these elements, as well as one of the greatest recurring Next Generation characters, Lt. Barclay.
TNG: “Hollow Pursuits”
This series needed Reginald Barclay. Almost every Starfleet Officer, unless you’re an Admiral, in which case you probably have questionable morals, seems superhuman. Remember, that boy genius Wesley Crusher could not get into the Academy on his first two tries. It always seemed like everyone in Starfleet was beyond gifted and without many faults. Then, we meet Reginald Barclay. Barclay is an extremely awkward, shy and introverted officer. He doesn’t know how to communicate with others. He suffers from anxiety and depression. In other words, he is all of us. So how does Barclay get through the day surrounded by people who seem so perfect? Easy, he spends his time in the holodeck where he can play with his fantasies. Imagine if your day dreams could be turned into a holographic adventure. Who wouldn’t want that? We gain such intimate knowledge of Barclay when he see his fantasies. This episode shows what the holodecks would be used for by everyday normal people (other than sex; see Quark’s holodecks on DS9 for that idea) making it one of the best and most unique holodeck episodes. Nothing goes wrong with the holodeck, it’s just distracting Reg from everyday life.
7. Alternate Reality
Alternate Realities are more the realm of magic, but somehow the concept of multiple dimensions or alternate timelines, etc have become a mainstay in Science Fiction. These alternate realties rarely deal with their own absurdity, which is why TNG’s “Remember Me” is such a great episode. Beverly Crusher becomes trapped in a warp bubble that is shrinking and so her universe is collapsing causing her to say at one point, “If there’s nothing wrong with me… perhaps there’s something wrong with the universe.” Yes, Beverly. You are correct.
Alternate Realities also can be more told as parables like It’s A Wonderful Life, which is beautifully adapted in TNG’s “Tapestry”. In “Tapestry”, Q gives Picard another chance to live his life, to take out his regrets, and to witness what he would have been without his mistakes. It’s a great story that demonstrate that our faults are as much inherently part of us as our talents.
These stories also can lead to incredibly moving and impossible scenarios like meeting yourself. One episode in Voyager has two Voyagers from alternate dimensions occupying the same time and space but linked by one supple of antimatter. One Voyager must sacrifice itself to save the other. In TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, the writers found a brilliant way to return Tasha Yar to the show through a time anomaly, which changed history. Of course history must be put back, but not before Picard allows Tasha to join the crew of the Enterprise-C.
However, there are two episodes that stand alone in this category, far beyond the rest. In TNG, there is the “The Inner Light” where Picard lives an entire lifetime in his mind in the span of about twenty minutes. It is one of the most moving episodes of Star Trek. But for me, this may be my personal favorite episodes in the entire franchise:
DS9: “The Visitor”
It is a known fact that most parents would sacrifice anything for their children. “The Visitor” takes this idea and turns it on its head. It begins as no other episode of Star Trek does. In the rain in Louisiana, an old man seems to be getting ready for bed when his door chime rings. A young woman who has lost her way in the dark asks if this is the home of Jake Sisko. The last time we saw Jake Sisko he was eighteen and living on Deep Space Nine. We soon discover that this old man is indeed Jake Sisko. “The Vistor” begins when Jake is in eighties, a famous writer who suddenly in his forties stopped writing and disappeared from the public eye. Now, this girl has tracked him down. She asks him why he stopped writing. Suddenly brought to the brink of tears, Jake responds, “If you had come another day, yesterday or the day before that, I would have said no and sent you on your way. But here you are, today of all days. And it feels right to finally tell this story. It begins many years ago. I was young man when the worst thing that could happen to a young man of my age happened to me… my father died.” With that shocking statement, the opening credits begin to roll.
The central performance of an adult Jake Sisko is played by Tony Todd in perhaps the best performance in a solitary episode of Star Trek. Indeed, Jake watches as his father is vaporized before him. He becomes haunted by visions father. At first, he believes these visions are just that visions. Slowly, he comes to realize that his father is real. Somehow his father became lost in time, only appearing to Jake for brief moments. Then, Jake is forced to leave Deep Space Nine and his father’s visits seem to stop. With the memory of his father fading into the past, Jake turned to his own life. He began writing, got married, and was about to start a family when his father reappeared to him again. Jake now in his forties is the same age as his father. He breaks down telling him that he shouldn’t have given up on his dad. After that experience, Jake leaves behind writing and enters Starfleet Academy to study science. He is going to find a way to find his father. He believes that he has found a way to save him, but it doesn’t work. His father’s final wish to him was to live his life. Jake tries, but now, tonight he knows his father is coming. What is a son willing to sacrifice for his father? This is one of the few pieces of art that always moves me to tears.
6. Mirror Universe
In TOS, there was a transporter accident that moved Kirk and a couple of crew mates into an alternate universe, which came to be called “the mirror universe”. Yes, this is an alternate reality, which could have gone into the last category, but the thing is, there are about fifteen episodes that take place or involve the mirror universe. So, I decided that this should be its own category.
One of the few great episodes of Enterprise, “In a Mirror Darkly” Part 1 and 2, involved crossing over and finding a ship that disappeared in TOS. Discovery built its entire premise on the reveal that Captain Lorca is actually the mirror version of himself. The first season culminates with some incredible revelations in the great episodes “Vaulting Ambition” and “What’s Past is Prologue” including revealing mirror version of Captain Georgiou who is the Empress (wonderfully played by Michelle Yeoh).
DS9 embraced the Mirror universe having Kira and Bashir “Crossover” leading to a series of great episodes that includes “Through the Looking Glass” where Ben Sisko saves the mirror version of his wife. He can’t let her die twice.
But with all this being said, sometimes the original is indeed the best:
TOS: “Mirror, Mirror”
All you would have had to do to get me to watch this episode is say the line “Evil Spock”. I’m in. “Mirror Mirror” brings Kirk to the mirror universe where the Federation is evil instead of benevolent. That could have been an interesting story, but then it goes further. Kirk exposes Evil Spock to the ideas of the Federation, a community built on equality, understanding, empathy, and peace. It’s almost fulfilling the concept of Chronometrics and Horologs from Melville’s Pierre, the Ambiguous. Chronometrics being ideas or concepts from an idealized realm while Horologs are Earthly or practical ideas. Once someone is exposed to Chronometrics they can never look at their world the same again. Spock having seen the light change his ways and transforms the entire Empire.
5. Time Travel
Time travel and Science Fiction have gone together ever since H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine. I think that the story possibilities of time travel are so vast that almost every Science Fiction series (Star Wars is an exception) have delved into time travel.
TOS’s best episode may be “City on the Edge of Forever” where Bones accidently goes back in time and changes history. Kirk must go back to fix it, but in doing so falls in love with a woman who must die for the timeline to be restored.
In an action version of time travel, Enterprise, which is my least favorite series, explores the idea of a temporal war, which explodes in “Storm Front” bringing the Enterprise back to World War II without insane results.
Some time travel stories deal with the nature of time travel. Both TNG’s “Cause and Effect” and the insane “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” from Discovery explore time loops. “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” brings back the character of Mudd from TOS and he goes through a time loop repeating the same fifteen minutes over and over so that he can enjoy killing someone over thirty times before he’s finally stopped. Voyager’s “Shattered” plays with the idea that all times are present at once and all one needs to do is breach a dimensional barrier. This allows a shattering of time to produce multiple time periods all on the same ship.
For this pick, I easily could have chosen “All Good Things,” the final episode of TNG where Captain Picard is shifting through three time periods. It is perhaps the best season finale of any show I’ve ever seen, but my favorite time travel episode comes from Deep Space Nine.
DS9: “Past Tense” Part 1 and 2
No single episode of Star Trek has grown more important in my opinion than DS9’s “Past Tense”. “Past Tense” is a time travel episode that moves Ben Sisko and Doctor Bashir back to the mid 21st century when the economic difference between the wealthy and the poor is at an all time high. During a time of recession and joblessness, Sanctuary districts are created to house the homeless and jobless. These Sanctuary districts become lawless centers for the poor to be shoved into and forgotten. An important historical figure, Gabriel Bell, dies attempting to help Bashir escape from a gang. Now, Ben Sisko has to step into his place to fulfill history. This time travel episode doesn’t use time travel in an inventive way, but instead, uses time travel to tell one of the most important social justice stories in Star Trek.
4. Prime Directive Episodes
The Prime Directive is Starfleet’s general order number 1. It is a rule that prevents the Federation from interfering in the natural development of alien races. At times this seems heartless, especially when an alien race seems destined for extension. But, the general principle is to prevent colonialism.
There are harrowing episodes where the code is broken for moral reasons such as Voyager’s pilot, “Caretaker” when Captain Janeway decides to destroy the Caretaker’s array rather than allowing it to fall into the hands of the Kazon who would use it to kill the Ocampa race. This action traps Voyager and her crew in the Delta Quadrant. As Captain Janeway explains to an exacerbated B’Lenna Torres, “I know everyone has loved ones to get back to. So do I. But I am not willing to trade the lives of the Ocampa for our convenience. We’ll have to find another way home.”
Captain Janeway’s attempt to hold to the Prime Directive in the Delta Quadrant is further tested when the Kazon continually attack Voyager leading to an attempt to create an exchange in “Alliances”. This great episode shows the danger of letting go of one’s principles.
We see the devastating affect of human interference in TNG’s “Who Watches the Watchers” where Picard becomes a god to the local primitive aliens and also in the mistake that starts a war in Discovery’s “The Vulcan Hello” and “Battle at the Binary Stars”. Meanwhile, Earth nearly moves towards a civil war when security trumps the Prime Directive in DS9’s two part episode: “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost”.
But for me, the most ingenious episode dealing with the Prime Directive is when Voyager is placed on the other side of the equation. In “Prime Factors”, Voyager encounters a race who has the technology to send them home, but to do so, would violate their laws.
Voyager: “Prime Factors”
Captain Janeway’s decision to strand her crew in the Delta Quardrant, seventy-five thousand light years from Earth, was the most difficult decision of her life. She understands the weight of the decision she has made and its impact on each of her crewmembers. As a result, she desperately wants to get them home. Then, they encounter a fascinating race called the Sikarians. The Sikarians offer Voyager and her crew respite on their home world. The Sikarians are in love with the pleasures of life, and they are bored by the pleasures that have grown old on their world. Voyager is new. Then, the crew discovers that the Sikarians have spacial trajectory technology and would be able to send Voyager 40,000 light years closer to home. There’s only one problem… it is against their laws to allow their technology to leave their world. Finally, the tides have turned. Now, the Federation knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the Prime Directive.
Tuvok, her Vulcan security chief and best friend, counsels Janeway that since they do not know the Sikarians, they do not know if “no” is a definite answer, but perhaps, an opening to negotiate. Janeway tries to negotiate with the Sikarians until she realizes they have no interest in helping Voyager. While she is doing this, members of the crew decide to trade for the technology illegally. The group of mutineers are shocked that Tuvok makes the trade for the trajectory technology. In the end, Janeway holds to her principles and must punish the rebellious crewmembers. When she discovers that it is her best friend Tuvok who has betrayed her, she wants to know why:
Tuvok: "It is quite simple, captain. You have made it quite clear, on many occasions, that your highest goal is to get the crew home. But in this instance, your standards would not allow you to violate Sikarian law. Someone had to spare you the ethical dilemma. I was the logical choice. And so I chose to act."
Janeway: “You did it for me… because you knew I couldn’t.”
Tuvok: “I expect to be court marshaled”
Janeway: “I need you to listen to me… You are one of my most valued officers. And you are my friend. It is vital that you understand me here. I need you. But I also need to know that I can count on you. You are my counsel. The one I turn to when I need my moral compass checked. We have forged this relationship for years, and I depend on it."
3. Social Justice
The heart of Star Trek and the reason I love the show is that it is rooted in dealing and tackling the social issues of today. Gene Roddenberry made clear that his show was dedicated to building the world that is envisioned in Star Trek. Numerous episodes from every series could fill this category. I am going to name a few.
Given the nature of Science Fiction, most of these stories deal with social issues through metaphor. In TOS “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, the starship Enterprise encounters an alien race in a civil war who appear to be half black and half white, literally split down the middle of the head. The reason for this war? One half of the species who is white on the right side believe that those who are black on the right side are inferior. Made during the height of the Civil Rights movement, this episode crystalizes Star Trek taking on social issues.
Two other important episodes that use alien race as a metaphor are TNG’s “The Outcast” and DS9’s Rejoined”. In “The Outcast”, an alien whose race is genderless falls in love with Riker and dares to come out as a female only to be arrested. In “Rejoined”, Jadzia Dax falls in love with her symbiont’s former lover now joined to a female host. Both these episodes deal with homosexuality at a time when the subject matter was considered taboo.
Star Trek doesn’t always use alien race as a stand in for our own issues. Sometimes they take issues head on. TOS’s “Taste of Armageddon” and TNG’s “The Wounded” take on the issues of war. TNG’s “Chain of Command” Part 1 and 2 deal directly with the issues of torture in a compelling performance by Patrick Stewart who worked at the time with Amnesty International.
DS9 did something truly unusual which was to directly confront humanity’s issue of race, not in allegory, but in history. “Far Beyond the Stars” is one of the all-time great episodes that imagines Ben Sisko as a writer in 1950s America who dreams up Deep Space Nine as a story starring a Black Commander. His story is rejected by its white publisher.
However, the “issue” episode that strikes closest to my heart is one that harkens back to using alien races as an allegory for human issues. One of the best episodes of Voyager, “Death Wish”.
Voyager: “Death Wish”
The beginning of “Death Wish” cannot prepare us for where this story is going. Voyager discovers a comet that has no orbit. Discovering a new astrological phenomenon, the crew decide to beam a sample of the comet on board. But when the transportation is finished, instead of a sample from a comet, they beam a person on board. He walks through the forcefield around the transporter pad and announces “My name is Q.”
This isn’t the Q we know from TNG, but he is a member of the Q Continuum. Q, the one from TNG, shows up to try and put the rogue Q back in prison on the comet. We eventually learn is that the Q who has been imprisoned on the comet is “suicidal” and trying to take his own life. Being an immortal being, his suicide attempts have created cosmic disasters including the 300 year Romulan Vulcan war. But then the story shifts again. In order to explain his suffering, Q takes them to the Q Continuum. By going to the Q Continuum or a representation of it, th suicidal Q presents to us the importance of our mortality and moves towards the social justice issue that this episode wants to discuss: dying with dignity; the ability for a patient to decide when it is time to end their life. It does this with a poignancy and articulation that is rare except in great writing. We, like Captain Janeway, move from doubting Q’s intentions to understanding his suffering and accepting his desire to end his own life.
2. Defining Humanity
In the second season of TNG, there comes an episode, “Measure of Man”, when TNG found itself. The episode involves an attempt by a Starfleet cyberneticist to order Data to allow him to disassemble him in an attempt to build more Datas. Data is concerned with the cyberneticist’s methods, understanding and rejects the order. Ultimately, a court must decide whether Data is property or a life.
In every Star Trek series, there is a character who embodies the idea of defining humanity. Here is a list of those characters.
TOS: Spock (the half-Vulcan, half-human among humans)
TNG: Data (an android)
DS9: Odo (a shapeshifter)
Voyager: The Doctor (a hologram)
Enterprise: T’Pol (a Vulcan)
Discovery: Saru (an alien race that is believed to be extinct known as a Kelpien)
Picard: Soji Asha (an android)
Almost any of the episodes that focus on these characters could be a great “Defining Humanity” episode. Voyager’s “Real Life” has the Doctor create a holodeck family. Are they real or just holographic? TNG not only explored this with Data in “Measure of Man” but in the episode “The Child” where Data creates an android daughter, Lal. TOS does this when we come to understand Vulcan emotions in “Amok Time”.
Then, there are the episodes where humanity is tested. Only when pushed, do we come to an understanding of what it means to be human. Kira discovers this in dealing with the death of Vedak Bariel in “Life Support”. Poor Chief O’Brien encounters this numerous times (no character in the pantheon of Star Trek is put through more harrowing experiences) but particularly in “Hard Time” where O’Brien is forced to live an entire life sentence in his mind before being released several hours later. Is he the sum of his experiences in jail or is he the man before those experiences?
Picard stands up for humanity in “The Drumhead”, an episode based on a witch hunt, while Captain Sisko shows the faults of humanity in “In the Pale Moonlight”.
But two episodes from recent shows rise to my favorite in this category:
Discovery: “Through the Valley of Shadows” / Picard: “Nepenthe”
One of the great characters in Star Trek is Captain Christopher Pike. Captain Pike was the first Captain of the Starship Enterprise. He appeared in the original pilot before it was rewritten and reshot with Kirk in command. Pike reappeared in TOS when Spock steals the Enterprise to take Pike who, through an accident, can no longer can speak, move, or interact with anyone. He exists inside a machine on wheels. Discovery brings back Pike in the years before he took command of the Enterprise. In the incredible episode “Through the Valley of Shadows”, Pike is seeking a special time crystal, but learns there is a price to pay for retrieving one. The crystal will show him his future. If he takes it, that future will happen. If he leaves it behind, it could be avoided. For reasons that are too complicated, the universe needs the crystal for its salvation. When Pike touches it, he sees the accident that will destroy him. Now, he knows this will happen if he takes the crystal. One of the fundamental human failings is the fear of death. With this fear, we can do terrible things. But, one of the fundamental human virtues is the ability for self-sacrifice. Like Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, Pike chooses to meet his horrific fate for the safety of everyone else. Nothing could be more human.
The entire premise of the show Picard involves synthetic life’s rights. In the show, Soji discovers that she is not human. Her memories are fake. Everything she has known has been a lie and the man she confides this in tries to kill her. It is at this moment that Picard takes her to Nepenthe, the planet where two old friends live with their family. Here, Picard finds Riker and Troi and their daughter Kestra. Picard, among friends, is reminded of what it means to be alive, to be human. There is such joy in seeing Will and Picard simply sit and talk. Being human is caring for one another. In his reclusive behavior following his resignation from Starfleet, Picard has forgotten this. While he is remembering the importance of humanity, Soji is discovering what it for the first time. Through her incredible interaction with Kestra and later Troi, Soji comes to understand that being human is not a matter of flesh and blood, but rather of spirit and belief.
1. First Contact
And now we arrive where we started. Today is “First Contact” day and so it is only fitting to end this list with Star Trek episodes involving first contact. The irony here is that a lot of first contact episodes are not the great episodes of Star Trek. That being said, there are a number of candidates.
First contact can be a very dangerous mission. The dangers of such a decision in how to make first contact are demonstrated in the TNG episode aptly titled “First Contact.” In this episode, Riker goes missing on a planet where the Federation has been doing surveillance of a species who is near breaking the warp barrier. But Riker’s disappearance has sped up the need to contact the species. All of their research has shown that the species is in many ways not ready for first contact, but making contact in a controlled setting rather than in space is a better idea as seen in the first contact between Klingons and humans in Discovery.
Despite all of the good intentions of the Prime Directive, first contact can also go drastically wrong such as in the great Voyager episode that introduced us to the Vidians: a race who has been suffering from a disease that has transformed their entire way of life. The phage, as the disease is called, eats at the flesh of its victims. It is incurable. But the Vidians in an attempt to battle the phage have created sophisticated medical equipment to help prolong their own lives by stealing organs for other species and transplanting them into themselves. Janeway warns them at the end of their first contact that she will do anything to prevent her crew from being victims of this body harvesting.
However, first contact when done well leads to an understanding; a meeting of the minds. The best example is Sisko’s contact with the “prophets” (also know as Wormhole aliens). Star Trek has a history of its pilots not being great episodes, but “Emissary” is a great episode where Sisko encounters a lifeform so different than us that they have no understanding of time.
In TNG, there is a fascinating example where first contact comes as a warning. Q flings the Enterprise into the Delta quadrant in “Q Who” in order to introduce the Federation to the Borg. Their first contact sets in motion all of the events of “Best of Both Worlds” as well as Star Trek: First Contact. As Picard says to Guinan at the end of the episode, “Perhaps Q did us a favor”, knowing that the Borg are out there allows the Federation to prepare for them.
But, if there is one episode that shows us the reality of two different aliens trying to understand each other, it has to be TNG’s “Darmok”.
TNG: “Darmok”
The Children of Tama were a mystery. An alien race whose form of communication eluded the best linguistic experts. They were called incomprehensible by Starfleet Captain who first encountered them a century ago. No communication was ever established. Now, a Tamarian ship sits on the Federation border, waiting. When the Enterprise arrives, the Captain of the Tamarians ship beams down to the planet’s surface also taking Captain Picard without his permission. With the two of them stranded on the planet, Picard, like the others on the Enterprise, believe that this is a challenge much like the TOS episode “Arena”; however, the Tamarian Captain has something more profound in mind. He is hoping that by forcing the two sides to simply be with each other, empathy, understanding, communication, and trust can be built. When two people with differences come together in good faith, contact can turn to understanding.
This is exactly the message we need in our country. As we grapple with identity, priviledge, race, and gender, we need to realize that it is in meeting someone who is different than you that we learn, not only about our connections, but further our understanding of ourselves as well. We do this through communicating, which cannot happen without meaningful interaction, which is why diversity is so important. One of the failings of the Civil Rights Movement has been the continued segregation in cities. Racial lines are still roughly the same as they were under segregation because minorities have found it difficult to move into wealthier White areas. Here, Star Trek offers a simple and profound realization. In the end, Picard is re-reading The Odyssey because the Tamarians communicate via literary and historical metaphor. Picard says “knowing our own history may make it easier to relate to the Tamarians”. Indeed. The encounter brought humans and Tamarians closer together, but it also made Picard want to examine his own history.
