If you could choose two or three episodes of the original Star Trek, not including the pilots without Kirk, to show to your non-US spouse to close a bit of the cultural barrier, particularly season 1 on Netflix now, which would you choose?
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City on the Edge of Forever (alternate history)
Amok Time (Vulcan culture)
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The trouble with tribbles…
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From season 1, I’d guess that Space Seed has somewhat universal appeal – a charismatic villain, a seduced crewmate who betrays the ship, a crew that refuses to give in to the villain’s demands, and of course the final fist fight with Kirk.
On a rainy day in my middle-school, my Physical Education teacher actually showed this video in class! Maybe the message was, “work out guys, and you too can seduce the ladies like Khan does!”
That was also a good one (not season 1 though I think) and won some award if I recall correctly. As a time traveling romance kind of story, it’s probably also pretty easy to get into even for non-Trek fans.
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Wasn’t it more eugenics?
True, but I assume (maybe wrongly, who knows?) that the PE teacher wasn’t in favor of that!
The kid who could wish things. Like when he made that guys face disappear. Freaks me out to this Very day.
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Mudd’s Women
The Enterprise interferes with Harry Mudd’s (Roger C. Carmel) new business, supplying wives to rich but lonely miners.
The Enemy Within
A transporter malfunction strands Sulu and others on a frigid planet and splits Kirk into two antithetical people.
Court Martial
Following a violent storm, Captain Kirk is charged with causing the death of a missing officer through cowardice. As the investigation into his version of events proceeds, a more sinister motive emerges and it is Kirk’s word against the computer record - a computer that supposedly never lies.
I rewatched all the series and movies in order when off work during covid, waiting for the introduction of Riker’s beard.
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Another one I like is The Squire of Gothos, about an omnipotent, mischievous alien who completely exceeds the captain and crew’s ability to deal with him. The solution is, of course, Deus ex machina, but it’s an amusing episode nonetheless.
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The City on the Edge of Forever (e28, screenplay credited to Harlan Ellison). A love story that hinges on chaos theory and the butterfly effect.
This is the one where McCoy accidentally injects himself, goes crazy, and beams down to the surface of the planet they’re orbiting. When Kirk and Spock follow him they discover the faintly Stonehenge-like Guardian of Forever, which if entered can teleport in space and time. McCoy has been teleported to 1930s NYC. There Kirk falls in love with a soup kitchen worker, played by Joan Collins. The poignancy of the ending still packs a sting.
The scenes with Collins have to be among Shatner’s best serious work.
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What up, horseman?
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I assume you might mean s01ep2 “Charlie X)”/wiki–|The Enterprise picks up Charlie Evans, an unstable 17-year-old boy, who spent 14 years alone on a deserted planet and lacks the training and restraint to handle his superhuman mental powers wisely.
In that one he blows up a research vessel or sth, struggles to be liked, makes playing cards take the image of a female crew member he has a crush on, and after losing a chess game to Spock, he turns all the pieces wonky. And after hearing Kirk say he wants this year’s Thanksgiving meatloaf to really taste like turkey, he turns them into real turkeys?
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That’s the one. Charlie gets madz when they laugh at him. So he makes it so they can’t laugh anymore.
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Great replies all, thanks! I’ll never forget “The City on the Edge of Forever”; great call!
I would like to expand this to seasons 2 and 3 now that I have seen Netflix has those too. Couldn’t figure out how to edit the OP. I am not operating on all cylinders here…LOL
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What?! Where?!
Christopher Pike, the female No 1 and the Talosian episodes, no?
Spock’s ears were hilarious in those early ones.
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The Cage, Star Trek’s first pilot. Starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike and Majel Barrett as Number One (they hadn’t come up with a real name for the character yet).
The network kind of liked it but thought it was too cerebral and didn’t contain enough action so they took the unprecedented step of asking for a second pilot (Where No Man Has Gone Before).
They didn’t like having a woman as second in command so Majel Barrett became Nurse Chapel in the series.
Apart from her, only Spock was retained from the first pilot for the series.
(Now, Pike and Number One are back in a prequel series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is much better than the other recent Star Trek shows like Picard and Discovery. Feels like real Trek).
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My vote goes to The Doomsday Machine (because it’s pretty action packed and impossible to lose interest in) or Balance of Terror (classic submarine tale set in space).
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Anything with Harry Mudd