Favourite Star Trek TOS episodes?

[such_heights]

It's a very exciting time here at at Purple Heights Manor - after gradually making our way through Buffy over the past year, it is nearly time for me to start showing purplefringe Star Trek. \o/

I want to start at the beginning, but I'm not sure we're going to want to watch the whole of the original series (though there's a distinct possibility we will be compelled to watch Spock's Brain, with alcohol). As I haven't watched the whole series myself, I come to the internet for aid.

So! Which TOS episodes are your favourites? Which ones do you rate as the most significant in pop culture or fandom? My list from my limited viewing would include:

Where No Man Has Gone Before
The Naked Time
The Enemy Within
Balance of Terror
Arena
The City of the Edge of Forever
Amok Time
Mirror, Mirror
The Trouble With Tribbles
Turnabout Intruder

What am I missing?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The Devil in the Dark! (Hortas are the best.)

[misbegotten]

"Space Seed." Khaaaaan! Oh wait, that comes later. ;)

"Journey to Babel" has Sarek and Amanda. I honestly can't remember the plot, I just love Spock's parents.

"The Man Trap" has some good McCoy stuff.

"For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" because again, good McCoy stuff.

[juniperphoenix]

"The Enterprise Incident" has Kirk going undercover as a Romulan and Spock seducing the Romulan commander.

[usuallyhats]

Seconding "Space Seed"; I watched it for the first time a few weeks ago, and it is so good!

[some_stars]

i would add:

space seed
this side of paradise
the devil in the dark
a piece of the action

i can't remember if "the conscience of the king" is actually good or i just really liked it.

[ladymercury_10]

I'm not sure it would completely make sense without the previous movies, but Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is hilarious and I love it.

[carmilla]

My list is very similar to yours!

I'd second 'For the World is Hollow...', 'Journey to Babel' and especially 'The Enterprise Incident', which is one of my favourites and has (IMO) the best-realised female character in the show.

I'm also fond of 'Dagger of the Mind' for its unusually well-executed plot, 'Bread and Circuses' for a particularly interesting Spock/McCoy conversation, 'The Empath' for its ridiculous idtasticness, and 'Is There In Truth No Beauty?' for another interesting female character and allowing Leonard Nimoy to stretch his acting muscles a little bit.

One of my very favourite writers did a complete set of TOS reviews that might be worth having a scan through.

[kuwdora]

I love Spock's Brain.

[cesperanza]

adding to the above:

Doomsday Machine!
Corbomite Manuever!
The Cage!

and for me, I would lose Turnabout Intruder, but YMMV!

[independence1776]

I'm not a Star Trek fan, but I adore "The Devil in the Dark."

[pocketmouse]

Basically all of it.

The Cage (original pilot, and not the version that got redone as an episode) is important, it's a very mindfucky plot (for the 60s).

Definitely Devil in the Dark.

FTWIHAIHTTS is all right, but largely it's an example of 'plots that would have been stretched over several episodes now being dumped in your lap with no setup.'

The Empath, for the OT3 bits.

Bread & Circuses, mmm, yes, Bones/Spock. Plus the only reference you get in TOS to Christianity even possibly still being a thing.

Court Martial - Jim is framed for murder, Bones gets to use his space psychology degree, Spock gets to use a microphone, and Jim tears his shirt again.

If you watch Trouble with Tribbles, you must immediately follow it up with Trials and Tribbleations. This is a requirement.

[blueswan]

Devil in the Dark. (Monsters)
For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky. (Mainly because I am a Bones fangirl.)
The Empath (Let me repeat - Bones fangirl.)
All Our Yesterdays. (Caveman vs. astronaut.)
Conscience of the King (Kirk backstory)
Squire of Gothos (for FUN)
Enterprise Incident (Romulans)
Space Seed(Supermen from the past)
Journey to Babel (lots of aliens)
A Piece of the Action (1920s American Gangsters
Assignment: Earth (Time travel!)

[cosmic_llin]

A Piece of the Action is ESSENTIAL. And lulsy.

[aria]

I am ... possibly the only person in the world who really loves Patterns of Force, which is the one with SPACE NAZIS, but it has lots of great Kirk and Spock, and a rebel leader who is a lady (never in soft filter, ends up leading the planet when things are fixed, not a romance! one of my favorite TOS secondary ladies, in fact), but ... also SPACE NAZIS, so YMMV.

Seconding a lot of the other ones, too. :)