Balance of Terror, a run of the mill WWII submarine movie premise with some extra depth (no pun intended) as pointed out by Doodler. Also a good antagonist, who wasn't a Johnny-one-note black mustache twirler, but an equal to Kirk who just happened to be on the 'other side', which makes the victory at the end more downbeat since his victory came at the hands of an captain with a code of honor too.
The worst was the Space hippies episode, I have never been able to watch that one. Just the first shot of the hippie singing in the tree was enough, and as you can tell that image has been scarred into my memory ever since.

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Fiorello: What am I supposed to say?
Otis B. Driftwood: Tell them you're not here.
Fiorello: I don't think they'll believe me.
Otis B. Driftwood: Start talking. They'll believe you.
A Night at the Opera (1935)

The old "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer..." line.

Hey, is there anyone else who's really bothered that, in the old series, the Klingons are underhanded villains, and the Romulans are portrayed as honorable enemies, but then in Next Gen, they completely flip this characterization, so the Romulans are devious and scheming and the Klingons are now honorable warrior types.

Since I posted the worst two, I guess I should also pick some of my favorites.
In no particular order:

The Corbomite Maneuver - Kirk doing some of his best captaining and simply refusing to give up, even against obviously impossible odds. I still love the effect when the giant glowy ship zips up to the Enterprise and then just keeps growing until it absolutely dwarfs the smaller ship.

Bread and Circuses - Spock and McCoy have a great little debate while sharing a cell. McCoy goes on about how Spock isn't afraid of death because he's more afraid to live. Spock looks like he's on the verge of admitting McCoy is right, but then arches a brow and brushes it all off with "really, Doctor."

Errand of Mercy - The first Klingon episode, with a nicely evil Klingon commander (one who takes and executes hostages, in fact - very different from how supposedly the same character was portrayed on DS9). Kirk gets enraged when the Organians stop the conflict, then looks very emberassed when he realizes he was just arguing for an unnecessary war.

There are lots more, of course, but those are some of my favorite bits.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

Say Kirk's last line out loud, and rather quickly. It seems that perhaps "Vulcan" was standing in for another word . . .

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2009 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Worst episodes: "And the Children shall Lead", "Spock's Brain" (of course)


Best: "Doomsday Machine", "The Troubles with Tribbles".

Me too. Let's start a best/worst thread for THE AVENGERS ! The Diana Rigg years.

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

My favorite guffaw line:

Spok: "We are now listening to the the heart beats of everyone on board amplified 1 to the first power." (Courtmartial) In short, not amplified.

Favorite Line:

Bones to Spok: "Ya know I pitty you Spok. You'll never know the power of love. You'll never know the glorious deeds or the glorious defeats love can drive a man to."

Ooops, gotta go.

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

Heh. I have the Tara King/Linda Thorson episodes on DVD as well, for completeness, but there's no argument that Emma was far superior. On the other hand, for Star Trek, I only have one movie and a couple of original series episodes. Star Trek was on in reruns for so many years that I know them better than I want to, but when I first got the DVD bug, I hadn't seen Avengers in decades, and found I still liked them.

Emma Peel....oh the outfits she would wear!

I remember watching it when it originally came out - oh so many years ago.

Emma Peel

Ok...boyhood fantasties.

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I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older

My personal favorite was the episode with the kids who aged ever so slowly until they reached puberty (or there abouts) and then turned into hideously deformed maniacal killers. Then the landing party caught the diasese and Dr McCoy had to develop the cure. One of the best arguments for not sending the most senior officers on board on the first contact team that I've ever seen. "Bonk, bonk on the head. Bonk, bonk on the head"

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Free speech is no problem
It's listening that costs

The best quote definately is "damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!"
And the most hilarious episode ever is "Plato's Stepchildren"
You just gotta love that show.

I could never understand that logic. Ok, let's send the three most important people into certain danger (Captain, First Officer, and Chief Medical Officer). With that logic you should send the entire bridge crew down along with the Chief Engineer - sort of like sending General Eisenhower on the landing craft to lead the D-Day invasion force.

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I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older

It's just a TV show. Give it some license. Would you rather have had Kirk/Spock stay on the bridge all the time?

It's just a bone I have with the original show. I agree it would have been boring to have Kirk and Spock on the bridge while everyone else got to have fun or experience danger on the planet.

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I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older

Speaking of which, William Shatner is a better actor than people give him credit for, at least during TOS (I make no apologies for his rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). Like Adam West, his acting style was easy to make fun of, but he delivers many excellent performances and several exceptional performances (e.g. the one where he is split into a good and dark half, City on the Edge of Forever) during TOS.

TOS was also fortunate to have some actors give extremely good performances as guest stars, such as Decker, Mark Lenard in all his roles, Dr. Daystrom, Mudd, and Trelane (and the Gorn was kinda cool).

And didn't anyone else think that Mr. Atoz is just like Chang from Lost Horizons? I guess not many people have seen that movie.

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"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars". - Edward Young, 1745

Star Trek Least needed line: "Ya can't mix matter and antimatter cold!"




Re:Avengers. BBC America has been rerunning it. My GOD, that was a BAD show.

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If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

I thought that was a neat, really intense part of that episode.

And I should add Ricardo Montalban as Khan to that list. Whenever I see him in the show or one of the movies I picture him singing "Baby, it's Cold Outside".... :wink:

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"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars". - Edward Young, 1745

And I should add Ricardo Montalban as Khan to that list. Whenever I see him in the show or one of the movies I picture him singing "Baby, it's Cold Outside".... :wink:[/quote]


Yes, how could anyone forget that Ricard Montalban's character, that fellow named
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! !!!!
Sorry it just something I have to do. ops:

__________________
Fiorello: What am I supposed to say?
Otis B. Driftwood: Tell them you're not here.
Fiorello: I don't think they'll believe me.
Otis B. Driftwood: Start talking. They'll believe you.
A Night at the Opera (1935)

Yes, how could anyone forget that Ricard Montalban's character, that fellow named
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! !!!!
Sorry it just something I have to do. ops:[/quote]

The emotion in that one word. Almost thought his toup would pop off with that one.

However, I've come to appreciate Shatner as of late. I have the bad habit of playing his version of "Common People" over and over on the CD player.

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I feel a hot wind on my shoulder
And the touch of a world that is older

What would happen if you mixed matter and antimatter cold?
:-k :wink: 8)

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

It would get really hot?

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

well basiccally mixing it cold is bad. but apparently if u do mix it cold and dont blow up, u can go back in time. something which might be very convenient.

I remember the line,
Spock:"We were successful. The engines imploded." :-k :-s

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

Khan, now there was a villian with some dimension. His performance in Space Seed was a little archtypical of the day, even though you caught a glimpse of the depth of character, but turned loose on the big screen... Unequalled before or since.

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The last time I felt a warm fuzzy feeling, I was informed by my doctor that it was just gas.

Worst plot in my opinion:

In one episode, a former girl friend of Kirk's who washed out of Starfleet Academy uses an alien device to switch minds with him so she can command The Enterprise. How long could she expect that to work? When they're questioning her to determine her true identity they ask questions about Kirk's former missions which are a matter of public record. If anyone had thought to ask "What did you have for breakfast this morning?" or "With whom did you play chess last night?" it would have easily settled the matter.

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Life is like a box of chocolates. All of your choices are bad for you.

Was it a show?! I thought it was just a series of pictures of Diana Rigg.

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

Well, it sure did explain why Janice Lester washed out of Command Academy. Boy, way to handle stress, Cadet!

I'm not sure which was more interesting; watch Shatner mince about (although he had some very convincing, and sad, moments towards the end), or watching Sandra Smith do a pretty good "take" of Kirk in serious mode. The scenes between "him" and Spock....well, there were some very strange undercurrents in that show.

Dr. Lester was obviously mad. Look around at Kirk's fellow captains and you understand why Spock was willing to do almost anything to stay out of the big chair. Garth. Merik. Tracey. All the guys playing war games against M5. Decker (though he had an excuse). And Kirk himself lost it a few times. Often, the only thing that kept the demands of command of the Enterprise from destroying him was...the demands of command of the Enterprise.

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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[quote="Herodotus"
Yes, how could anyone forget that Ricard Montalban's character, that fellow named
Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn! !!!!
Sorry it just something I have to do. ops:[/quote]


Check this out


And personally I thought Assignment: Earth was the worst, although the hippie one was reallly bad too.

My favorite quote is from when Nomad scanned Uhura's mind. I don't remember it exactly, but it was something to the effect that her thoughts were incoherent or irrational or something like that. I bet you couldn't get away with that today.