The 60 Most Important Star Trek Stories Of All Time

The following is not another “best of” list ranking the absolute greatest Star Trek episodes and movies of all time. No, there are plenty of those. Instead, this is a list ranking the 60 most important Star Trek stories ever. But what, exactly, defines importance?

Briefly, this is the thinking: If any one episode changed science fiction on TV, it’s important. If a movie or book changed the history of Star Trek itself, it’s important. If a piece of fanfic changed culture at large, it’s important. There are at least 60 episodes/movies/books/games/fanfics that everyone has to experience at least once, Trekkie and casual fan alike. And this means certain underrated episodes, books, films, et al. simply matter more to individual fans. In this list, we attempted to allow a lone voice to elevate a forgotten Trek in order to prove that the Final Frontier is so much more than just all the episodes you’ve already heard of. (Remember how our heroes value “the needs of the one” over the needs of the many sometimes?)

This is all to say, sorry, but “Darmok” and “The Man Trap” are not on this list, because we had more interesting picks that you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Feel free to disagree, either with pure human emotion or with cold Vulcan logic. As Kirk said to Spock in The Undiscovered Country (which is on this list!): “Everybody’s human.”

60. “Charlie X,” The Original Series (1966)

Almost never included in standout episodes of TOS, “Charlie X” isn’t a fun episode at all, but it is an excellent one. When a disturbed 17-year-old kid, Charles Evans (Robert Walker Jr.), hitches a ride on the Enterprise, the crew quickly learns he has godlike powers. There are plenty of Treks with a similar premise, but Charlie isn’t a quirky space god like Q or Trelane; he’s a terrifying portrait of what can happen to human beings in extreme situations. A prescient take on toxic masculinity, “Charlie X” is one of writer D.C. Fontana's most underrated scripts.

In terms of Trek lore, this episode also gives us a great scene between Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), in which Uhura teasingly sings a quasi-love song to Spock with lyrics that suggest he’s both satanic looking and also attractive. Spock is good-natured about this and even grins a little bit. The Zachary Quinto/Zoe Saldaña versions of Spock and Uhura ended up delivering on this implied romance (which was also hinted at in “The Man Trap”) in the 2009 reboot film, Star Trek.

Plus, considering this was the only second episode of Star Trek ever aired (but seventh in overall production order), it does quite a bit of heavy lifting in establishing crew dynamics. This is also, in terms of broadcast order, Star Trek’s first “bottle episode”; all of the action we see takes place inside of the Enterprise. — Ryan Britt

59. “Tuvix,” Voyager (1996)

Science fiction is famous for examining real-life problems through a speculative lens, but it’s also used to pose philosophical riddles with absolutely no practical application. Humanity is unlikely to grapple with the byproduct of transporter accidents for the foreseeable future, yet they come up with alarming frequency on Star Trek, and “Tuvix” is the most infamous example.

After the boisterous Neelix and phlegmatic Tuvok are inadvertently merged into a single being, Voyager’s crew must grapple with the loss of two crewmates while welcoming an unexpected new one. Tuvix is likable, interesting, and excellent at his job… until the Doctor discovers a way to restore the men who formed him.

This leaves Janeway with a real-life trolley problem: Is it right to destroy one innocent man to save two? You know Voyager isn’t about to write off lead characters, yet it’s still unsettling to watch Tuvix be met with cold indifference when he pleads for his life. Janeway essentially executes a man without trial, and the impossible question of whether she was right to do it may forever divide the fandom. What other Voyager episode’s Wikipedia page cites the response scientists and politicians had to it? — Mark Hill

58. “Justice,” The Next Generation (1987)

The eighth-ever episode of Next Generation may be ridiculed for its “sex and running planet” setting of Rubicun III, but beneath that is a question of whether or not Picard should break the Prime Directive in order to save the (at this point quite young) Wesley Crusher.

It’s a microcosm of everything that makes Star Trek great: ridiculous outfits, a utopia turned into a dystopia, reflections about God, and a moral dilemma that causes Picard to contemplate a lot. It may come early on, but this is Next Gen’s first sign that even filler episodes can be great. — Dais Johnston

57. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary/Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1991, 1993)

Even Data would have trouble cataloging every Star Trek game, which range from pen-and-paper RPGs to shooters, mobile crud, and pinball. So while we’ll dodge the debate that accompanies the title of Best Star Trek Game, we’ll call 25th Anniversary the most intriguing.

Released to celebrate exactly what it says, 25th Anniversary is split into seven episodes where players conduct ship-to-ship combat, navigate the bridge, and oversee away missions, all in the service of Starfleet. While not the first game to replicate any of the franchise’s most iconic elements, it was the first to combine them into one attractive package, right down to the eventual addition of voice acting from the original cast.

A sequel, Judgment Rites, would add another eight episodes, and together they feel like a peek at TOS seasons that never were. Acclaimed upon release and still playable today, they’re the kind of adventure games that have since been relegated to the indie sphere, where Star Trek is unlikely to boldly go — 2023’s Star Trek: Resurgence is the closest inheritor, and it was recently delisted. That’s a shame, because the format is perfect for anyone who’s dreamed of calling the shots from Kirk’s chair. — Mark Hill

56. “Pigs in Space,” The Muppet Show (1978)

In the world of science fiction, imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery. And on TV beginning in 1977, Star Trek was imitated from the sincerest folks in pop culture: the Muppets. Beginning in Season 2 of The Muppet Show, viewers were treated to the continuing adventures of Capt. Link Hogthrob, First Mate Piggy, and Dr. Julius Strangepork as they traveled through the galaxy on the Swinetrek. The sketch was so popular it was revived again and again, including as Pigs in Space: Deep Dish Nine in the ’90s. It’s a testament to Star Trek itself that it was beloved even with a porcine cast. — Dais Johnston

55. “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach,” Strange New Worlds (2022)

This bleak Strange New Worlds is a riff on a classic short story that has inspired many other sci-fi media, but “Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach” is one of the most successful. When the USS Enterprise receives a distress call en route to the planet Majalis, the crew encounters a young, smart boy known as “The First Servant,” who is due on the planet for his “ascension ceremony.” The planet is a progressive, technologically advanced utopia, but Capt. Pike and his crew soon learn that it comes at a horrifying price.

The episode is inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” which tells of a utopian city that exists thanks to the perpetual suffering of a single child, who is locked away in filth and misery. It’s a grim parable about the cost of utilitarianism and what people are willing to sacrifice for “the greater good.” While Strange New Worlds’ approach is a bit heavy-handed, it’s no less effective than the short story that inspired it, and proves that Trek is still at its best when it’s riffing on classic sci-fi. — Hoai-Tran Bui

54. The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre (1981)

While Vonda N. McIntyre’s The Entropy Effect features a timey-wimey plot that feels closer to contemporary Doctor Who than Trek, it holds up shockingly well as both a cracking sci-fi yarn and as a Star Trek novel.

But, more than anything, The Entropy Effect is the first place where Sulu was given the first name “Hikaru.” True fans knew this to be his first name for years and years, but it didn’t become onscreen canon until 1991 in Sulu’s opening captain’s log narration in The Undiscovered Country. — Ryan Britt

53. “The Bounty,” Picard (2023)

It’s tempting to just include one single entry on this list for Star Trek: Picard Season 3 in its entirety. But if one has to pick just one episode from this incredible run, “The Bounty” stands out for a few reasons. For one thing, this episode probably is the best blend of contemporary TV action trends and Star Trek aesthetics ever, but also, “The Bounty” is a masterclass in how to do nostalgia correctly.

Essentially, the episode gives us two locations, both filled to the brim with Easter eggs. While Worf (Michael Dorn) and Riker (Jonathan Frakes) investigate Daystrom Station, the USS Titan heads to the Fleet Museum at Athan Prime. Whether it's killer tribbles, the skeleton of James T. Kirk, or every single one of your favorite starships from the past, “The Bounty” isn’t just a love letter to the history of Star Trek; it also proves that the history of Trek can help create its future. Spoiler alert: The title references the stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey from The Voyage Home, which has a cloaking device that comes in very handy. — Ryan Britt

52. “Elementary, Dear Data,” The Next Generation (1988)

Where would nerdy fandoms be without Sherlock Holmes? Like the bold voyages of Starfleet, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes often value reason and intelligence over action and conflict. For this reason, it’s easy to see a connection between Spock and Holmes (as Holmesian Nicholas Meyer did in The Undiscovered Country), but the android Data’s love of Holmes became fully manifest in the early TNG episode “Lonely Among Us,” though we didn’t get to the full dress-up episode until Season 2’s “Elementary, Dear Data.”

While the basic premise of this episode feels questionable — that the computer misunderstood a prompt and a weird energy surge happened at the same exact time — the notion that a fully conscious AI version of Moriarty could defeat not only Data but take over the Enterprise is one of the all-time greatest Trek ideas ever. Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton are wonderful as their own versions of Holmes and Watson, but the true power of the episode lives with Picard’s confrontation with Moriarty, played by Daniel Davis, who, in the pantheon of actors who have played the great archvillain, is one of the best of all time.

This episode is also pure Star Trek through and through, as even a 24th century holographic Moriarty is not the embodiment of evil, and Picard makes it clear that even in the absence of a space version of Reichenbach Falls, nobody will be throwing the professor under the bus. — Ryan Britt

51. “Covenant,” Deep Space Nine (1998)

In a post-post-modern sci-fi show, a villain like Gul Dukat would have gotten a hasty redemption arc by Season 2 or 3. While Deep Space Nine’s writers once entertained the thought of exonerating the Cardassian tyrant (via a romance with Kira Nerys, of all beings), the series eventually doubled down on his wicked ways. Just before DS9 came to an end, Dukat got an insidious villain arc in “Covenant.” After a life-changing encounter with a Pah-wraith, Dukat is all too happy to become their Emissary, forming a Bajoran cult on Empok Nor.

He summons Kira (against her will, as ever) with one last entreaty to rule by his side. Our girl’s not buying it, and given the horrors she later encounters on Empok Nor, she’s right to trust her gut. In theory, redemption could have worked for Dukat, but we would have been robbed of a sci-fi villain who was equal parts Jim Jones and Napoleon. We love to hate this guy, and that’s what makes an episode like “Covenant” so impossible to look away from. — Lyvie Scott

50. “The Vulcan Hello,” Discovery (2017)

The modern era of streaming Star Trek shows — for better or worse, depending on whom you ask — began with Discovery. Now, nearly a decade after the debut of this divisive series, the opening two-part story, which began with “The Vulcan Hello,” holds up much better than one might expect. While Discovery became known for wearing its heart on its sleeve nearly at all times, the Season 1 opener, “The Vulcan Hello,” is darker and more hard-edged than you might remember.

It also establishes an extremely cinematic look for the show, and the script does a ton of heavy lifting in terms of establishing a new status quo for the mid-23rd century era of Trek. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity in Discovery’s opening episode is the fact that the voyages of the USS Shenzhou under Capt. Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) might have made for an amazing series on its own. The Mirror Universe version of Georgiou obviously became the most famous version of the character, but back in late 2017, this series felt very different from what it would become.

Without Discovery, none of the modern Treks would have existed, and in 2017, when there were objectively several cooks in the kitchen, “The Vulcan Hello” delivered a risky Star Trek series premiere unlike any we’d ever seen before. — Ryan Britt

49. “Sarek,” The Next Generation (1990)

Other than DeForest Kelley’s cameo in “Encounter at Farpoint,” and a few mentions of Capt. Kirk, the first two seasons of The Next Generation referenced The Original Series sparingly. In fact, by the time of TNG’s third season, it was somewhat understood in the writers room that talking about TOS too much at all was basically off-limits. This makes the episode “Sarek” something of a breakthrough for TNG, insofar as writer Ira Steven Behr recalled that even being able to mention the name “Spock” during the mindmeld scene between Sarek and Picard was a very, very big deal.

Mark Lenard’s Sarek appeared in exactly half of the original TOS films, making the character’s importance to the overall Trek mythos massive by the time The Next Generation rolled around. The episode “Sarek” represented a turning point in the franchise overall, as the synergy between the feature films, the classic show, and the future of Star Trek began to fully coalesce. Just one year after this episode aired, Leonard Nimoy would return as Spock in The Next Generation two-parter “Unification,” and Mark Lenard would appear in the final classic-cast feature film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, along with TNG star Michael Dorn, playing an ancestor of Worf. The intergenerational crossovers in Star Trek seem commonplace now, but “Sarek” set the standard. — Ryan Britt

48. “Vox in Excelso,” Starfleet Academy (2026)

The notion that there is a debate team at Starfleet Academy is a great premise for a Star Trek episode in any area, but with “Vox in Excelso,” Starfleet Academy managed to take what feels like a quirky Lower Decks or even a deep-cut Deep Space Nine episode and turn it into a bigger story about culture and point of view.

Unlike some modern Treks, which tend to telegraph the “correct” reading of the themes and story, “Vox in Excelso” is interesting because debate and contradiction are at the heart of the story. Jay-Den’s (Karim Diané) personal struggle is made much larger by the end of the episode, but this standout Starfleet Academy excels by breaking down stereotypes rather than doubling down. — Ryan Britt

47. “Lost and Found,” Prodigy (2021)

The great expansion of Star Trek as a variety of streaming TV shows is, as of this writing, entering its final phases. But just a few short years ago, there were more new and different Star Trek shows than ever before. Perhaps the most overlooked, and a little bit misunderstood, of these was Star Trek: Prodigy. Consisting of very bold serialization, the basic idea of Prodigy was to introduce a group of alien tweens from the far side of the galaxy to the wonderful world of the TNG/DS9/VOY era of Trek.

It all began with a two-parter called “Lost and Found,” in which the kids stumble across a starship on a prison colony that’s not supposed to be there. While not the most perfect Star Trek series premiere, today, “Lost and Found” represents a moment when the franchise was daring to be very different and yet true to the values of the franchise. Even if its characters made it to those values the long way around. — Ryan Britt

46. “Sins of the Father,” The Next Generation (1990)

The Klingons first appeared in The Original Series episode “Errand of Mercy,” but what we think of as real Klingons were truly born during the time of The Next Generation. Yes, the bumpy forehead look comes from The Motion Picture and then The Search for Spock. But the behavior of Klingons, including their codes of conduct and their obsession with honor, was refined during TNG. Arguably, all of this emerged at its most iconic in the third-season episode “Sins of the Father,” written by Ronald D. Moore. Using his vast love of TOS, and even various noncanon Trek novels, like John Ford’s The Final Reflection, Moore gave us the Klingon homeworld for the first time, as well as a ton of rules and world-building for how the culture of Klingons works.

This foundation made Worf a much more interesting character, which is probably why, as of this writing, no single actor has appeared in more installments of Trek than Michael Dorn’s Worf. You can’t have Star Trek without Klingons being multifaceted and interesting, and without “Sins of the Father,” it's hard to imagine the true nature of the Klingons ever emerging. — Ryan Britt

45. “Arena,” The Original Series (1967)

Written in a flash of inspiration by TOS producer Gene Coon over a long weekend, it was later realized that the basic setup for the story was extremely similar to a short story written by Fredric Brown, right down to the title. Instead of giving up, Star Trek offered Brown partial story credit for the new Trek “Arena,” and history was made.

In some ways “Arena” is the ultimate litmus test for helping a normal person love Star Trek. The iconic lizard-person suit that created the Gorn captain was designed by Wah Chang, and if you’re a hater, it looks corny and weird. If you’re someone who loves pop culture art and thinks something can look a little silly and amazing at the same time, then the Gorn, and Capt. Kirk’s occasionally hilarious fight in the episode, isn’t just a punchline, but something of a revelation.

Because, as much as we can laugh at the Gorn in “Arena,” the ending message of the episode is clear: Kirk refuses to slay the Gorn, and in doing so, proves humanity is capable of better things. — Ryan Britt

44. “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” Deep Space Nine (1998)

One of the many consequences of the six- to 10-episode season replacing the 22 to 24 episodes of old is that most dramatic heroes are now stuck in crisis mode 24/7. There’s no time to take a vacation that becomes a mystery or find an excuse to put everyone in period costumes; you will watch a single major storyline, and then you’ll watch something else.

Modern streaming certainly has its advantages, but we will point out that, if DS9 were made today, we likely would have been deprived of “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” which came amid the Dominion War that dominated the show’s final season. The story of Sisko whipping his baseball-indifferent crew into shape to play an all-Vulcan team helmed by his old academy rival is funny, sweet, and completely pointless, making it the perfect counterpart to all the year’s brutality.

While the episode would probably be well-remembered regardless of when it aired, its release during fictional wartime reminded us why our heroes were fighting. Dramatic stakes are nothing without lovable characters behind them, and these characters were struggling through a hellish conflict because they loved each other, even if they didn’t quite understand the appeal of Sisko’s strange game. — Mark Hill

43. “Data’s Day,” The Next Generation (1991)

Although there’s an argument to be made that the TNG Season 2 episode “The Measure of a Man” is one of the best Star Trek episodes of all time, its direct sequel is the true banger. In “Data’s Day,” our favorite android, Data (Brent Spiner), narrates an entire day in his life to Dr. Bruce Maddox, which results in a one-of-a-kind Star Trek episode that has never been replicated before or since.

While “Data’s Day” does feature some space adventure subplotting (there’s a Vulcan visitor who is really a Romulan spy), there’s no action in the sense of real mortal danger or punching or really, anything. Instead, Data tries to help Keiko (Rosalind Chao) and O’Brien (Colm Meaney) with their impending wedding, feeds his cat, and tries to learn to dance.

This episode is not only charming as hell, but it also served as a kind of mind trick on Trek fans. This is, believe it or not, the first appearance of Keiko in all of Trek canon, and also — yes, really — the first appearance of Data’s cat, Spot. This is how you do great continuity: You just pretend like certain things have always been that way, and then you rely on great actors to sell it. — Ryan Britt

42. “Rejoined,” Deep Space Nine (1995)

When this episode aired one year before Star Trek’s 30th anniversary, in 1995, the depiction of anything other than heteronormative relationships on TV was very, very rare. In the first episode of DS9, directed by series star Avery Brooks, Star Trek broke new ground for the franchise by depicting, on screen, a same-sex kiss. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) is reunited with her former lover Lenara Kahn (Susanna Thompson), with mixed romantic results.

While some fans at the time complained that DS9 avoided saying this was an actual lesbian relationship — the Trill symbiont’s previous host body was male — this was still something that Trek had never tried before, and with the reputation as a mainstream franchise, “Rejoined” was a big, bold, and brave risk. Plus, considering Dax’s previous host body was male, from the start of DS9, the series had already been ahead of its time for quite a while. — Ryan Britt

41. “The Enemy Within,” The Original Series (1966)

The classic tale of Kirk getting split into one evil half and one good half set the stage for over a dozen transporter accident episodes throughout the entire Trek franchise. Today, the episode is memorable for Shatner’s over-the-top but somehow convincing performance as both Evil Kirk and Good Kirk.

However, the truly most important thing about this episode comes from Leonard Nimoy. While filming the episode, Nimoy felt that there must be some other way to subdue the Evil Kirk without hitting him with his fists or with the butt of a phaser pistol. And so, Nimoy created the famous Vulcan nerve pinch, Spock’s nonviolent way of knocking people out, a moment in which he set his hands to stun. — Ryan Britt

40. Fic: “A Trekkie’s Tale” (1973)

You’ve probably heard the term “Mary Sue” bandied about in sci-fi discourse, maybe to refer to Rey from Star Wars or Bella from Twilight or maybe even James Bond. The term, used to poke fun at flawless, inexperienced, often author-insert characters, actually comes from the Star Trek fanfiction community. In 1973, Paula Smith anonymously penned the satire “A Trekkie’s Tale” in the zine Menagerie, the tale of a young lieutenant who is the greatest person ever.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t survive the 300-word story. “As she breathed her last, she was surrounded by Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott, all weeping unashamedly at the loss of her beautiful youth and youthful beauty, intelligence, capability, and all-around niceness.” RIP, Mary Sue. — Dais Johnston

39. “Space Seed” The Original Series (1967)

After 1982, it was nearly impossible to look back on “Space Seed” as anything other than a prologue to the mega-famous film The Wrath of Khan. Even the title of the episode was prescient, not to mention the ending in which Spock wonders: “It would be interesting, captain, to return to that world in a hundred years and to learn what crop has sprung from the seed you planted today.”

But in 1967, “Space Seed” was sort of like The Hobbit, before The Lord of the Rings. As a self-contained episode of TOS, written by Trek stalwart Gene Coon, from a story by Carey Wilber, “Space Seed” was also directed by Marc Daniels, who helmed 14 episodes of TOS and may be the most consistent TOS director in general.

Obviously, the headline of “Space Seed” is that actor Ricardo Montalbán gives an incredible performance, much more nuanced than what he became famous for in The Wrath. While the classic Star Trek was known for an alien-of-the-week dilemma, Khan was unique because he was a human from the past, though still a human from our own future. This in-between, barbaric era of Trek’s prehistory is a huge part of Trek lore; yes, things get better by the 23rd century, but things get a whole lot worse before that happens. Khan’s status as a romantic dictator from Earth’s past is a brilliant concept, and though his cinematic Wrath is more famous, “Space Seed” is interesting because it’s a story that is actually about Khan and what he represents within the incredible spectrum of humankind — Ryan Britt

38. “Year of Hell,” Voyager (1997)

“I’m no authority on time travel, in fact I’ve made it my goal in life to avoid it,” says Capt. Janeway in “Year of Hell.” But when the big bad has a “weapon ship” (yes, that’s what they actually call it) that can zap whole species out of existence and rewrite space-time, Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway has no choice but to dive headlong into the temporal paradox.

Veteran Trek writers Brannon Braga and Joe Menosky really decided to put the crew through the wringer with this two-parter, and the set and FX departments must have had a field day destroying the bridge and ripping apart the hull. Kurtwood Smith puts in a great performance as Annorax, the heartbroken patriot trying to undo the death of his wife, caused by one of his reality-rewritings meant to restore his species’ empire. There’s delightful technobabble involving temporal shielding and chroniton torpedoes.

Smith plays Annorax as a somewhat more reasonable — if you forget the temporal genocides — Captain Ahab, at war with the whale of time, which he believes is actually angry at him. A cousin to TNG’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise” in the “did any of this actually happen?” category, this is a super-fun disaster episode that pulls out basically every sci-fi stop Voyager has. Capt. Janeway wanted to forget this “year,” but like “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” did for TNG, this is one alternate timeline that ended up defining Voyager forever. — Colin Cheney

37. “Yesteryear,” The Animated Series (1973)

Written by D.C. Fontana, who was basically the showrunner for Star Trek: The Animated Series, the episode “Yesteryear” finds Spock and Kirk accidentally creating a timeline in which Spock died as a child, because older Spock has not gone back in time to rescue him — yet. More than a predestination paradox, “Yesteryear” suggests that time travel to one era can later force you to time travel to another era; and that’s just the setup.

The crux of “Yesteryear” is about Spock visiting his family when he is a child and pretending to be a distant cousin. Spock’s fuzzy childhood memory of exactly when he undertook the kahs-wan — a Vulcan rite of passage — adds some nice realism to the story, which predates Back to the Future by over a decade, despite having a somewhat similar idea. “Yesteryear” is also notable for being one of the first episodes of a children’s TV show to depict a child’s pet dying on screen, second only to the famous Mister Rogers episode from 1970, “Death of a Goldfish.” However, Spock’s loss of I-Chaya is arguably a bigger deal, since as a young boy, Spock has to agree to euthanize his pet to ease the suffering. Heavy stuff for kids!

Much of the iconography from “Yesteryear” would go on to influence future depictions of the planet Vulcan in general, and of Spock’s childhood in specific. Discovery Season 2 borrowed heavily from the vibe of “Yesteryear” in its various flashbacks, while the reboot film Star Trek 2009 recreated a scene in which young Spock is taunted by Vulcan children, nearly verbatim. — Ryan Britt

36.“The Wormhole Connection,” DC Comics Star Trek #1 (1984)

Because The Original Series was sold and functioned as an action-adventure series first, and a nuanced sci-fi show second, thinking about the bold heroes of Starfleet as comic book heroes makes a lot of sense. While Star Trek has a long, interesting history with comic books, without a doubt, the most pivotal run began in 1984, when DC Comics launched Star Trek #1 and posited a new continuity of adventures set after The Wrath of Khan but before The Search for Spock. The reason? The Search for Spock wasn’t out yet, and DC editor Marv Wolfman, along with writer Mike Barr, set out to do what had never been done before: create serialized comic book arcs with the Star Trek characters, rather than episodic adventures that mirrored the TV series.

The result was an entirely parallel movie-era TOS canon, in which Saavik steps in to Spock’s role following his death, Kirk resumes command of the Enterprise right away, and we get a whole new cast of secondary characters, including a pacifist Klingon named Konom, who, well before Worf, becomes the first Klingon in Starfleet.

DC’s first volume of Star Trek is wild in many other ways, mostly because every other year, the writers had to figure out how to retcon everything they’d done in order to make it all work with the most recent film. This included the idea that Kirk was given command of the USS Excelsior following the destruction of the Enterprise, and Spock’s mind was returned to normal thanks to a mindmeld with Spock from the Mirror Universe. The comics adventures tap-danced as much as they could around changing movie canon, until finally, in October 1989, after the release of The Final Frontier in theaters that summer, DC started over with a new issue No. 1, and canon that more or less ignored everything it’d been doing since 1984.

Years later, in 2016, IDW would do something similar with the launch of an ongoing series called Star Trek: Boldly Go, which asserted a new canon for the Kelvin Universe crew, following the destruction of their Enterprise in Star Trek Beyond. That run is also fantastic, but it’s hard to beat DC’s first run at Star Trek, which remains both true to the spirit of the 80s Trek films and uniquely DC. — Ryan Britt

35. Galaxy Quest (1999)

We’ve included a few parodies on this list, which may seem somewhat sacrilegious, but hey, back in 2013, fans declared that Galaxy Quest was a better Trek movie than Star Trek Into Darkness. Is Galaxy Quest a Star Trek movie? Literally, no. But honestly, we’re pushing it with “Pigs in Space” being on this list more than we’re pushing it with Galaxy Quest.

More than any send-up or tribute to Star Trek that was created outside of the franchise, Galaxy Quest fully embraces all aspects of the Trek fandom and phenomenon, and creates a kind of cracked-mirror Hallmark movie version of what would happen if the cast of TOS really had to go into space and save the universe. Tim Allen is perhaps the key to all of this, because instead of playing William Shatner, he plays a Shatner-esque character that he makes utterly his own. But the rest of the cast is equally brilliant, most notably the late, great Alan Rickman, as well as sci-fi royalty Sigourney Weaver.

Patrick Stewart has said more than once that he was afraid to go see Galaxy Quest in 1999, for fear that it was mocking Star Trek and its fans in a cruel way. But after Brent Spiner encouraged him to see it, Stewart was an instant convert.

And, if you go hunting through the photo archives, you’ll find none other than Seven of Nine herself, Jeri Ryan, at the Hollywood premiere of Galaxy Quest (see above!), ahead of its Christmas Day release in 1999. — Ryan Britt

34. “The Offspring,” The Next Generation (1991)

Making my way, somewhat achronologically, through the seven seasons of TNG with my kids, I keep skipping “The Offspring.” When I asked a Trekkie colleague what he remembered of this Season 3 episode, his response was, “Oh, that one is so sad.”

It deals with Lt. Commander Data building a daughter, Lal. Data is both pragmatically and non-emotionally-emotionally curious about what it would mean for him to have a child, and much of the episode is a delight: Lal choosing her own form (Ziggy Stardust-esque Andorian female? Klingon warrior-boy?), then, in her human form, grabbing Riker across the Ten Forward bar for a big kiss. Picard and Troi also get some great scenes reckoning with Data’s unannounced decision to reproduce.

Then a Starfleet admiral orders Lal removed from the Enterprise for further study, and she experiences an emotional breakdown. The final scenes between Brent Spiner’s Data and his child are beautifully written and acted. The whole episode is great, and it’s basically the ground from which 2020’s Picard Season 1 is built.) And, yes, I’m probably going to cry through the thing when I finally watch it with my kids.

In terms of Trek history, this was the first episode written by René Echevarria, who would become a massively important contributor to 1990s Trek. Finally, and perhaps most pivotally, this was the first Star Trek episode directed by actor Jonathan Frakes. Frakes would go on to direct seven more TNG episodes, three episodes of Deep Space Nine, three episodes of Enterprise, two Trek feature films, and across the modern era of Trek, 17 episodes spanning Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, and Starfleet Academy. Many Trek actors became directors after Frakes created the precedent, including Voyager’s Roxann Dawson. To this day, Dawson is a huge director of sci-fi TV, including Foundation and Dark Matter. — Colin Cheney

33. “Devil in the Dark,” The Original Series (1967)

Another banger written by the “other” Gene, producer Gene Coon, “The Devil in the Dark” is one of the most iconic Star Trek stories for two basic reasons. First, it fulfills the actual in-universe mission statement of the series: that the Enterprise crew encounters a new lifeform, the Horta, a creature made entirely of silicon. While we might think this Horta looks like a giant pizza, it is, in fact, a rock creature. (Which gives Bones his famous and wonderful line: “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!”)

But the other reason “The Devil in the Dark” is so wonderful is that it does that classic Star Trek twist: The monster isn’t the monster at all, but a mother protecting its young. Spock’s mindmeld is the key to it all, and by the end, humans and Horta have made friends.

In a strange and tragic detail, William Shatner received news that his father passed away while filming “The Devil in the Dark.” But, according to Bob Justman and Herbert F. Solow in their book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, Shatner still insisted on filming scenes while he was waiting to depart. If Kirk is feels heavy in this episode, there’s a good reason why. — Ryan Britt

32. “Memento Mori,” Strange New Worlds (2022)

Before Strange New Worlds, the Gorn were not necessarily the scariest Star Trek aliens. Kirk fought one briefly in The Original Series, and it was basically a guy in a rubber lizard suit. But “Memento Mori” gave the Gorn a modern, terrifying update, cribbing hard from the sci-fi-horror of Alien to reinterpret them as body-invading parasites.

One of the MVPs of early Enterprise adventures, La’an (Christina Chong), gets the spotlight here: as the only crewmember with firsthand experience with the Gorn, she becomes their greatest weapon against the unseen threat. “Memento Mori” is both a great showcase for a laconic character and the tonal swings that Strange New Worlds has made its bread and butter. — Lyvie Scott

31. “Threshold,” Voyager (1996)

For people and pop culture franchises alike, our worst moments tend to be our most memorable. The job interview you flubbed, that terrible first date… these failures are only brief moments in our lives, yet they become permanently woven into our identities.

“Threshold” was just one hour in Voyager’s 172-episode run, but it might be the series’ most memorable. Featuring an attempt by Lt. Paris to break the Warp 10 barrier and get our heroes home, “Threshold” is passable before it goes so far off the rails that the rails are left behind in another quadrant. The episode infamously culminates in Paris “evolving” into an amphibious monster who kidnaps Capt. Janeway and runs off to a swamp planet, where they turn into lizards who produce offspring. Derided by fans and creators alike as one of the strangest, stupidest stories the franchise ever aired, “Threshold” is a reminder that while we’ll always remember our worst moments, we can also survive them and even, with time, laugh at them. — Mark Hill

30. “Journey to Babel,” The Original Series (1967)

The intermingling of various humanoid alien races and their diplomatic struggles to maintain intergalactic peace could be one way of describing Star Trek in simple terms. But in “Journey to Babel,” a story about an alien peace conference that nearly goes terribly wrong, laid out the foundation for all the similar stories that came later. (One could even argue “Journey to Babel” plants the seeds for Babylon 5.) But, on top of giving us the Tellarites and the foundational lore of how the United Federation of Planets was founded, “Journey to Babel” also introduced us to Spock’s parents, Sarek (Mark Lenard) and Amanda (Jane Wyatt).

Other than Leonard Nimoy as Spock, it’s hard to think of another actor who more fully defined our idea of Vulcans than Mark Lenard. He’s so good at Spock’s father, nobody minds that he played a Romulan in “Balance of Terror” one season prior. — Ryan Britt

29. “Ensign Ro,” The Next Generation (1992)

By Season 5, TNG was no stranger to politically complex, ethically thorny episodes, but “Ensign Ro,” which introduced Michelle Forbes’ inimitable Ensign Ro Laren, is easily one of its best. Introducing the Bajoran-Cardassian conflict through the surly new Enterprise ensign who hails from Bajor, the episode forces Picard to grapple with the limits of the Prime Directive as he’s confronted with imperialist war crimes that are happening before his very eyes.

Even more than three decades after it aired, “Ensign Ro” remains uncomfortably timely in its depiction of the Cardassian repression of Bajorans. While this plot thread would get explored in even greater depth in Deep Space Nine, its initial shock and impact in “Ensign Ro” still remains. — Hoai-Tran Bui

28. “Terra Prime,” Enterprise (2005)

Throughout its four seasons, the ambitious prequel series Enterprise went through more than one overhaul of tone and style. While the first two seasons were planet-of-the-week adventures, the third season turned very dark with a seasonlong arc involving the NX-01 Enterprise pursuing a cartel of aliens known as the Xindi in a lawless part of space. While Season 3 was, in many ways, more interesting, most fans would agree that the final season of Enterprise, Season 4, was when the show truly came together.

Much of this is thanks to the vision of the late Manny Coto, who became the showrunner in Enterprise’s final season. And although “Terra Prime” and its preceding episode, “Demons,” weren’t the actual final episodes of the show, this story, which was co-written by Coto and canon experts Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, very well should have concluded the series.

When a xenophobic humans-only movement overtakes Earth, it’s up to Capt. Archer (Scott Bakula) and the crew to stop it. The excellent Peter Weller stars as the anti-alien racist mastermind, Paxton. This marks the first of two appearances from Weller in the Trek franchise. In 2013, he would play the evil Adm. Marcus in Star Trek Into Darkness. But, honestly, his turn in Enterprise is a million times better.

The emotional core of the story, though, that Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) and T’Pol (Jolene Blalock) are fighting to save their Vulcan-human hybrid baby remains one of the most heart-wrenching Trek stories ever told. And, of course, the dramatic irony here is that the audience knows what Trip and T’Pol can’t: That in another century, a child of human and Vulcan parents will, one day, change everything. — Ryan Britt

27. “No Small Parts,” Lower Decks (2020)

When Lower Decks was first announced, many Star Trek fans weren’t sure what to expect. A former Rick and Morty writer doing a raunchy, adult animated series? Was this the end of Trek?

In many ways, of all the modern streaming shows, Lower Decks is the most reverential to the Star Trek franchise as a whole and the 1990s TNG/DS9/VOY era in specific. And with the Season 1 finale, Lower Decks proved that its basic thesis — a Star Trek show about junior officers, on a less-than-important starship — could be both hilarious and profound.

“No Small Parts” is a tour de force of wonderful writing from showrunner Mike McMahan and dares to bring back one of the worst TNG villains, the Pakleds, as a B-list foe, a perfect match for the crew of the Cerritos. The episode is stuffed with wonderful Easter eggs, but perhaps the best part of “No Small Parts” is when Riker (Jonathan Frakes) appears with the USS Titan, and we just instantly understand that he’s known Mariner (Tawny Newsome) for ages.

Fun fact: Riker’s sudden appearance to save the day in a bad*ss starship in a season finale episode happened twice in 2020. The first instance was in the Picard Season 1 finale, “Et in Arcadia Ego, Part II.” Though today, “No Small Parts” feels like the better deus ex No. 1. It also begs the question: Are Star Trek finales better with more Riker? — Ryan Britt

26. “The Emissary” Deep Space Nine (1993)

Deep Space Nine’s mission was to boldly stay put, which inverted everything Star Trek was known for. To succeed, the series had to make its title space station interesting enough to revisit week after week, and its two-hour pilot, “The Emissary,” accomplished that by taking some big, big swings. Introduced as an embittered widower stuck in a backwater, Cmdr. Benjamin Sisko is thrust into the limelight when he not only discovers a wormhole to the distant Gamma Quadrant, but accidentally becomes a religious figure on nearby Bajor after communicating with the strange aliens who call the wormhole home.

Sisko’s discomfort with being the Emissary would become a running plot point, as would many other themes introduced here, including Bajor’s struggle to emerge from the shadow of a brutal military occupation and the challenges faced when people with fundamentally different worldviews have to work together. DS9 would explore these and many other subjects over its run, but “The Emissary” made the show’s mission statement clear from the hop: These heroes would have to live with the consequences of their actions, not zoom away from them once an episode ended. — Mark Hill

25. “The Doomsday Machine,” The Original Series (1967)

It’s no surprise that “The Doomsday Machine,” which sees the USS Enterprise encounter a massive, planet-killing machine, came from the mind of Norman Spinrad, who, prior to writing this episode, was primarily a novelist.

The concept of an ancient doomsday machine that has long survived past the race that created it, is the kind of evocative novelistic sci-fi that early TOS would frequently turn to for inspiration. But “The Doomsday Machine” is one of the more successful ones thanks to Spinrad’s smart framing of the premise around a classic Moby-Dick narrative. Commodore Matt Decker is the Captain Ahab of this episode, driven mad by the doomsday machine’s destruction of his ship and crew.

When he mounts a vengeful attack on the machine that puts the entire Enterprise at risk, it elevates the episode into the upper echelons of TOS’ best action episodes. But after all of Kirk’s hail-mary gambits are done, there’s still something viscerally terrifying about an ancient, nigh-unstoppable piece of technology that we can barely begin to comprehend. — Hoai-Tran Bui

24. “Past Tense,” Deep Space Nine (1995)

Like Star Wars, Star Trek alluded to its past before exploring it. Bold names like the Clone Wars and the Eugenics Wars often sound better on paper than they work in practice, as many Star Wars fans learned when they sat down to watch the prequel trilogy. Trek, wisely, has only shown us bits and pieces of its past, but episodes like “Past Tense” were enough to reveal that the road to paradise was a long one.

After yet another transporter accident sends our heroes back to the distant year of 2024, Sisko and Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) are thrown in a “sanctuary district,” ghettos where anyone impoverished, disabled, or otherwise inconvenient is shoved out of sight. Sisko realizes they’ve arrived days before a history-altering protest they’ll have to aid, while Bashir, the naive foil to Sisko’s history buff, expresses amazement that humanity could treat its own with such cruelty when there appears to be plenty of wealth to go around.

You don’t exactly need a tricorder to spot the subtext; most stories set in the future are really set in the writer’s present, and subjects like homelessness and inequality were no more foreign to 1995 than they are today. But whenever you watch “Past Tense,” the lesson remains timeless: A better future won’t build itself. — Mark Hill

23. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

The most obvious reason why The Search for Spock was so seismic in Trek history is that it marks the first time the franchise committed to the idea of blowing up the starship Enterprise. But there are a few other significant things about this often overlooked film; it marked the first time a Star Trek cast member, in this case, Leonard Nimoy, took the reins as a director. Nimoy’s experiences working on the TV series Mission: Impossible also allowed him to imbue the story structure of The Search for Spock with a kind of team-up vibe, in which each classic TOS crew member was given an important job. Of all the adventures of the classic crew, this one feels the most like a found-family narrative, and when we think of the cozy nature of the TOS characters, much of it that vibe can be traced back to The Search for Spock.

A ton of canon was created in this film, too. From the iconic Starbase to the USS Excelsior to the iconic Klingon Bird-of-Prey, much of the world-building of Star Trek expanded significantly here, with casual fans barely really noticing at the time. The film’s other great achievement was also somewhat overlooked then and now: The Search for Spock successfully recast a major character. After Kirstie Alley declined to return, Robin Curtis was cast as the Vulcan Saavik. This means Curtis was the first, and apparently, last, person to be cast by Leonard Nimoy to play a Vulcan at all. — Ryan Britt

22. “The Trouble With Tribbles,” The Original Series (1967)

Despite appearing in just one episode and showing up sparingly throughout the rest of the franchise, the furry little creatures known as Tribbles have made their mark not just on the world of Star Trek, but the rest of the pop culture universe, too. Written by David Gerrold, “The Trouble With Tribbles” is not only a very, very fun concept for a sci-fi series; it’s also an extremely funny script.

Fans tend to remember all the hilarious bits with the ever-multiplying tribbles, including the climax of the episode when all the tribbles fall out of a storage compartment and onto Capt. Kirk. However, what you might forget is just how funny this episode is throughout. Shatner’s comic timing has never been better, and even Nimoy and James Doohan sneak in a great joke or two. If you want to be reminded just why we all fell in love with these characters, “The Trouble With Tribbles” is a classic. Even if the titular furry troublemakers had half their screen time, this episode would still be extremely watchable and charming. — Ryan Britt

21. “Plato’s Stepchildren, The Original Series (1968)

Perhaps no sci-fi smooch has been analyzed more than the 1968 one between Kirk and Uhura in “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which is often cited, incorrectly, as the first interracial kiss on television. There are all sorts of caveats to that title, depending on how you define both kissing and race; the honor should really go to either I Love Lucy or a BBC production of Othello, and the context in Star Trek isn’t particularly flattering either, given that the kiss comes at the behest of a telekinetic bully in a toga.

But it’s “Plato’s Stepchildren” that’s remembered as a landmark, and it’s remembered as a landmark because it was Star Trek. The episode aired just months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., who, as Uhura actor Nichelle Nichols tells it, encouraged her to stick with her role because American society needed to see a competent and respected African American woman on-screen. A psychic dingbat may have forced Uhura to kiss Kirk, but the moment still took place in a sci-fi setting where interracial relationships were completely unremarkable. That wasn’t the case in 1968, but Trek has always given viewers a future to aspire to. — Mark Hill

20. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Easily the darkest of the Star Trek feature films (and yes, even darker than 2013’s Into Darkness, which is not on this list, sorry/not sorry), the idea of what makes The Undiscovered Country so wonderful can be found in its title: Taken from Hamlet, the notion of “The Undiscovered Country” is thought to be a Shakespearean metaphor for death. But, here, early in the film, the peace-seeking Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) has his own interpretation of the phrase: “the future.” The larger gift to the world? The idea that the Klingons, somehow, in Trek lore, this is a legitimate opinion: “You’ve not experienced Shakespeare until you’ve read him in the original Klingon.” (Honestly, the greatest joke about the Shakespeare authorship debate? Forget Marlowe! Shakespeare was a Klingon!)

Throughout The Undiscovered Country, brilliant writer-director Nicholas Meyer layers on the classic elements of tragedy, which gives this film a thoroughly operatic quality. And, as the last outing for the original crew, the film also creates a fair amount of nostalgia without making anything too cloying or overly referential. On top of all of this, The Undiscovered Country is a film about confronting prejudice and bias, with Nimoy and Shatner at the top of their game in terms of truly embodying the aging versions of Kirk and Spock. Bonus points for one of the greatest guest casts in any Trek, from Iman to Christopher Plummer, and of course, Kim Cattrall. — Ryan Britt

19. “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” The Next Generation (1990)

“Yesterday’s Enterprise” is a magic trick of a Star Trek episode, in that it’s both a time-travel episode and an alternate-timeline episode. But its biggest magic trick is its redemption of Tasha Yar, the Enterprise security chief who met an untimely end in Season 1 after writers struggled over her character. “Yesterday’s Enterprise” kicks off after the USS Enterprise-D encounters a spacetime rift at the same time that the long-missing Enterprise-C emerges from it. This collision of timelines thrusts the Enterprise-D into a slightly different timeline in which the Federation’s war with the Klingons never ended — a change only noticed by Guinan.

Realizing that this encounter has created a paradox, Capt. Rachel Garrett of the Enterprise-C must make the ultimate sacrifice in order to restore the peace that no one on either ship had ever experienced. It’s the best kind of time-travel storytelling that couches its complex concepts in deeply human dilemmas and, of course, a love story — Hoai-Tran Bui

18. “In the Pale Moonlight,” Deep Space Nine (1998)

Gene Roddenberry’s vision for Star Trek has been mythologized with time, but at its heart, it was always an optimistic vision of the future. Humanity, having elevated itself above conflict and want, is free to explore the stars and attempt to do good wherever it goes. But our heroic crews often face a fact that we’re still grappling with today: Not everyone wants to put rapacity and injustice aside.

Many Star Trek episodes have poked and prodded at Roddenberry’s vision, but “In the Pale Moonlight” pushed it to its breaking point. As Capt. Sisko watches Federation casualties climb to excruciating heights, he’s determined to make the Romulans allies in his struggle against the cruel Dominion — and the lengths he’s willing to go to test him, us, and Star Trek itself. As Sisko’s scheme spirals, the greatest trick “In the Pale Moonlight” pulls isn’t making a Starfleet captain a willing accessory to murder, but making us believe that Sisko’s actions were logical, and maybe even justifiable. The Original Series showed us a utopia; Deep Space Nine asked how far we should go to defend one. — Mark Hill

17. “All Good Things...” The Next Generation (1994)

Not just the greatest Star Trek season finale, but probably the greatest TV finale of all time, “All Good Things...” is actually better than its somewhat straightforward time paradox premise. In theory, we’ve seen this kind of Star Trek (or sci-fi story) before. But the emotional sense of family throughout Jean-Luc’s time-shifting is unbeatable. Kevin Feige has cited this episode as a major inspiration, and he isn’t the only one.

Plus, the idea of the TNG crew playing poker together in the final shot was so good and so moving that Terry Matalas basically recreated it for the finale of Picard Season 3, “The Last Generation,” in 2023. — Ryan Britt

16. Star Trek (2009)

Just like with Batman Begins and Casino Royale before it, it's easy to see how Star Trek ’09 fits into the mid-2000s obsession with “grounded, realistic” imaginings of pop culture classics, but it's idiosyncratic amongst its contemporaries for two reasons. One: It still knows what fun is, evidenced by the exhilarating action set pieces that obviously (and, to be honest, understandably) draw more from the Star Wars side of sci-fi. Two: For how obsessed Hollywood is with the idea of the legacy sequel, the concept has arguably never been as equally reverent and metatextually clever as it is here.

Using time-travel and alternate universes (surely a groan-inducing combo in 2026) to pass the torch from the original crew of the Enterprise to a version of Kirk, Spock, and Uhura bred for the MTV Movie Awards generation shouldn’t work this well, and yet… — Chrishaun Baker

15. “Mirror, Mirror,” The Original Series (1967)

The blueprint for the alternate-universe episode, “Mirror, Mirror,” takes Capt. Kirk, Uhura, Scotty, and Dr. McCoy to a strange parallel dimension where fascism reigns, uniforms show way more navel, and Spock has a goatee. Stuck in a treacherous version of their Enterprise, the group must figure out a way to get back to their universe before they’re discovered — or, worse, killed.

Nearly 60 years after this episode aired, it’s still remarkable how effortlessly and effectively it introduces its parallel-universe premise and several high-stakes conflicts for the core group to overcome: How do they navigate this dangerous alternate universe where the Federation has been replaced by a fascist Empire? Can they prevent an innocent alien planet from being annihilated? Does mirror-Spock know more than he lets on? It’s the kind of thrilling, high-concept sci-fi storytelling that TOS, and Star Trek at large, does best. — Hoai-Tran Bui

14. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Infamously, the first Star Trek feature film began as a failed TV series, sometimes called Star Trek: Phase II or, confusingly, Star Trek II. Essentially, from 1975 to 1977, Gene Roddenberry and others worked on a new iteration of Trek, which would update the 1960s show for a new decade, introduce a few new characters, and tap-dance around the possibility that Spock would either not be in it at all, or perhaps a recurring character. (Negotiations with Leonard Nimoy were on and off for a while.)

However, by 1977, Star Trek: Phase II became a movie project and not a TV project. There are several factors that contributed to this, and if you’re really interested, you should track down a copy of the out-of-print nonfiction book Star Trek: Phase II: The Making of the Lost Series by legendary Trek scribes Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens. In some alternate timeline (including one imagined by Ronald D. Moore), Phase II simply became the next iteration of Trek on TV. But in our timeline, the pilot episode for Phase II, a script called “In Thy Image,” written by Alan Dean Foster, based on a concept from Roddenberry called “Robot’s Return,” was transformed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

To this day, fans debate whether or not The Motion Picture is the purest representation of Trek on the silver screen or the misguided dud that nearly killed the franchise. Including the aforementioned volume from the Reeves-Stevens, there are more books devoted to the making of The Motion Picture than perhaps any other single Star Trek project — The First Star Trek Movie by Sherilyn Connelly, Return to Tomorrow by Preston Neal Jones, and even the officially released book, The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Susan Sackett, to name just a few. Why? Well, hardcore fans and pop historians have all intuited the same thing: This was a massive turning point for Star Trek, and nothing would ever be the same again. — Ryan Britt

13. Fanfic: “A Fragment Out of Time”

Fandom can inspire strong emotions, and one of the most contentious reactions a fan could have to a media property is now one we take for granted: erotic enthusiasm.

Star Trek is generally credited with giving rise to slashfic, and “A Fragment Out of Time” is generally credited as the first published Trek slashfic (earlier stories had circulated privately). Written by Diane Marchant and published in a 1974 issue of Grup, an adult-oriented Trek fan magazine, the story was very short, relatively chaste, and technically between two anonymous men, although the accompanying artwork of Kirk and Spock made it clear whose “logical mind” was trying to process having his nipples flicked.

These days, it’s more remarkable if a new franchise doesn’t produce a wave of horny fanfic, and slashfic has since been analyzed through all sorts of academic lenses. The medium is considered particularly valuable to young LGBTQ+ fans, and the fact that the Heated Rivalry franchise began life as a Captain America/Winter Soldier fic seems like the form’s ultimate triumph. But that triumph was not inevitable, and the long road from mockery to media sensation began at Marchant’s desk. — Mark Hill

12. “Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Original Series (1965)

Famously, when Star Trek’s first pilot was sent to NBC, the show was not picked up. But, in a rare moment in TV history, Star Trek got a second pilot, and that pilot episode was “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Written by Samuel A. Peeples, not only did this episode provide Roddenberry with the inspiration for the opening narration (that phrase didn’t exist before this episode was written!), but it was also the first filmed episode with William Shatner as Capt. Kirk.

As much as we all love Anson Mount’s Capt. Pike today, it’s hard to imagine the Star Trek phenomenon launching with Jeffrey Hunter’s Pike. “Where No Man Has Gone Before” had Shatner’s Kirk hitting the ground running, pretty much nailing the heroic tone of the series from his very first scene.

The episode itself is also fantastic, and guest star Gary Lockwood would, just a few years later, co-star in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The 20th century story of modern sci-fi, in some ways, starts with “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” — Ryan Britt

11. “The Cage” (1964)

In December 1964, director Robert Butler was the man behind the camera for Gene Roddenberry’s first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage.” An accomplished TV director of the time, Butler would later direct the pilot episode of the famous Adam West-led series Batman, but “The Cage” was not, initially, a success story. Produced by Desilu Studios, the pilot was famously rejected by NBC for a variety of reasons, the most famous of which was that it was “too cerebral.” Later, Butler said that although he admired Roddenberry’s writing, he felt “The Cage” was confusing. “It was hard for me to follow,” Butler admitted in an interview with Allan Asherman, published in 1988.

Telling the story of Capt. Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) getting captured by supertelepaths, the Talosians, may seem familiar to Trek fans today, mostly because Roddenberry cleverly retconned this unaired pilot as a “flashback” within the events of the regular two-part episode “The Menagerie.”

Then, 55 years later, the Star Trek: Discovery episode “If Memory Serves” created a direct sequel to “The Cage” and a sideways prequel to “The Menagerie.” That season of Discovery also rebooted Capt. Pike (Anson Mount), Spock (Ethan Peck), and Number One (Rebecca Romijn), which eventually resulted in what is arguably the most popular of the modern streaming Trek shows, Strange New Worlds. — Ryan Britt

10. “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1,” The Next Generation (1990)

In the summer of 1990, fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation simply did not know if Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) would return as the captain of the Enterprise ever again. Consistently ranked as one of the greatest cliffhangers in all of TV history, “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 1” was the moment The Next Generation was no longer a burgeoning spinoff in the shadow of The Original Series. This was the moment that TNG became Star Trek in the eyes of the mainstream.

In terms of the overall storytelling of Trek, “The Best of Both Worlds” unlocked even more storytelling potential than ever before; following this third season finale, TNG doubled down on its character-story-of-the-week approach, which resulted in the true golden era of the series. Additionally, “The Best of Both Worlds” forever changed the in-universe rules in two ways: The Borg were retconned as a species that assimilated organic beings (this wasn’t the case in “Q Who”), and because Jean-Luc had once been part of the Borg, from this point to First Contact, and later, Picard was forever changed. — Ryan Britt

9. “Amok Time,” The Original Series (1967)

Ah, yes, the “Spock in heat” episode. But like many other TOS episodes, “Amok Time” is more than its memes and even more than its shippy Spock and Kirk moments (though the latter does provide the genuine emotional core of the episode). The episode takes the Enterprise crew to the planet Vulcan, where Spock must undergo an ancient and deadly mating ritual that puts his friendship with Capt. Kirk, and his own body, to the test. “Amok Time” is notable for many reasons — in addition to having the first on-screen use of the Vulcan salute, it also introduces essential Vulcan lore — but it’s inarguably one of the best-ever Spock episodes.

Leonard Nimoy gets to lift the curtain of Spock’s famously stoic exterior to show his ever-constant struggle with emotions, providing greater depth and an intriguing alienness to the character. And most importantly, it cemented the unbreakable bond between Spock and Kirk — after all, who else would get Spock to crack a smile? — Hoai-Tran Bui

8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

First Contact is the best Next Generation movie. And even if the other ones weren’t so polarizing (my kingdom for a magnet to run across the master tapes of Star Trek: Insurrection), First Contact would still be a great movie, even outside of Trek discourse.

The Enterprise travels back to 21st century Earth to stop the Borg from altering history: Picard and crew have to make sure humanity’s first warp flight gets noticed by the Vulcans — otherwise, like, there’d be no Star Trek future. James Cromwell, fresh off Babe, plays a wonderfully against-type hero-of-history Zefram Cochrane, while Alice Krige introduces the Borg Queen, an idea that wends its way through Voyager and eventually Star Trek: Picard.

It’s also one of the few pre-J.J. Abrams 2009-Trek movies that really works as a standalone sci-fi movie for people who don’t already know what the hell a Jeffries tube is. Trekkie-or-no, it helps to watch it as Star Trek that knows it was made for the cineplex. Even Worf’s “Assimilate this” becomes a little more fun that way.

Bonus points: The idea that the Vulcans were the first aliens that humans ever met was, up to that point, 30 years after TOS debuted, not known to Trekkies. First Contact not only paid homage to the history of Trek by bringing back a deep-cut character like Zefram Cochrane (who first appeared in the TOS episode “Metamorphosis”) but it managed to pull off a massive retcon to Trek prehistory, while not ruffling any Trekkie feathers along the way. — Colin Cheney

7. “The City on the Edge of Forever,” The Original Series (1967)

Probably the most-discussed episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Harlan Ellison’s original script for “The City on the Edge of Forever” differed greatly from what we ended up seeing on screen. And, when we say “original script,” we mean one of the several drafts Ellison produced, before the entire thing was rewritten by both Gene Roddenberry and D.C. Fontana.

That said, the basic concept — that an Enterprise crew member unwittingly creates an alternate timeline in which the Federation was never formed — remains. And, to twist that knife a bit more, the whole reason this alternate timeline exists is that a good-hearted social worker had to die.

Regardless of Ellison’s numerous complaints over the years, the legend of “The City on the Edge of Forever” is, in the end, less interesting than the final episode itself. While one should certainly listen to the excellent audio version that recreates the original teleplay (and may feature a certain audio essay from a certain Inverse editor) or read the 2014 IDW comic book take on the story, the original episode remains affecting, beautiful, and a true highlight of The Original Series.

So many classic TOS episodes end with a big laugh on the bridge of the Enterprise. This one ends with Kirk saying “Let’s get the hell out of here.” It’s a serious, important episode, in which Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, William Shatner, and guest star Joan Collins are all incredible. Because of the various ways the episode was written and rewritten, it's a minor miracle “The City on the Edge of Forever” exists at all. And Star Trek certainly wouldn’t be as beloved without it. — Ryan Britt

6. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

According to a few different metrics, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home may have been indirectly responsible for getting humpback whales off the endangered species list. The paper trail of donations to Greenpeace certainly increased after the release of the film, and for a brief time in 1986, saving the whales wasn’t really a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, but rather a Star Trek issue. The sheer popularity of this film, which was embraced by a mainstream audience, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Star Trek films don’t need space battles or even villains to make a big screen splash.

Prior to the 1996 Star Trek: First Contact, the best-performing Star Trek film, when you take in budget and box office profit, was The Voyage Home. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, with a script featuring various collaborators, including Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer, and producer Harve Bennett, The Voyage Home remains as delightful today as it was in 1986. Who needs photon torpedoes when you can watch Spock in his underwear mindmelding with a whale? — Ryan Britt

5. “The Inner Light,” The Next Generation (1992)

Inspired by the George Harrison Beatles song of the same name, writer Morgan Gendel pitched “The Inner Light” to The Next Generation as an outsider. His concept was radical and unique for TNG, even during the heyday of character-centric pieces. The notion that Jean-Luc Picard could live out his entire life as another person, and eventually forget all about the Enterprise, and even grow old and die, remains one of the most arresting and heartbreaking concepts in science fiction, let alone Star Trek.

Although the late Peter Allan Fields shares screenwriting credit with Gendel on this one, make no mistake, this is very much Gendel’s baby. In addition to remaining an active writer — and penning another TNG favorite, “Starship Mine,” as well as two DS9 episodes, “The Passenger” and “Armageddon Game” — Gendel also puts his mind to popular space tech, including ingenious habitats that could help humans survive on Mars. With any luck, in the future, the first people on Mars will be able to watch “The Inner Light” from the comfort of one of Gendel’s Haboliths.

In terms of the legacy of “The Inner Light” on Trek, that impact remains clear. The Season 3 finale of Strange New Worlds did its own Capt. Pike version of “The Inner Light,” with reverberations that are still felt in Season 4. — Ryan Britt

4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

Although The Motion Picture had been a success at the box office, it was, in a sense, a pyrrhic victory for Paramount Pictures. Because the development of the series Star Trek: Phase II was retroactively considered to be part of the budget of The Motion Picture, the cost of the movie, considering the middling reviews, simply wasn’t worth it. It’s not fair to say The Motion Picture was The Phantom Menace of its day, but it certainly divided hardcore fans and normals alike.

What happened next nearly didn’t happen at all. The development of a new Star Trek film became the job of producer Harve Bennett, who hired several screenwriters to take a crack at the Trek sequel. At the same time, Bennett tapped 35-year-old Nicholas Meyer, most famous for adapting his Sherlock Holmes novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution into the 1976 film of the same name, as well as directing the 1979 time-travel caper Time After Time. And although he remained uncredited, Meyer cobbled together the best of the existing and disparate screenplays into one cohesive story, and infused his vision of Star Trek with a literary heft, giving Kirk and Spock plenty of Dickens to quote, while handing Khan the spirit of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick.

Although new to Star Trek at the time, Meyer correctly intuited that the adventurous spirit of Trek owed much to C.S. Forester’s nautical novels about Capt. Horatio Hornblower. This, too, was one of Roddenberry’s key inspirations for Star Trek, so, as much as Meyer and Roddenberry may not have seen eye-to-eye on everything in The Wrath, the core of Trek had made its way to a different generation of filmmakers.

The Wrath was also the film that killed Spock — at least for a little while. Either way, the death of Spock created a huge uproar in the fandom before it happened, but now it feels like gospel. The Wrath is the moment Star Trek was actually very transgressive with its own material, but also managed to make that transgression, in retrospect, feel like the true, canonical core of the entire saga.

There are many firsts on The Wrath — including the first major role for Kirstie Alley, the first time Industrial Light and Magic created a CGI special effect, and the breakout film for composer James Horner, who, more famously, would score Titanic in 1997.

With an incredible guest cast — Paul Winfield is a deeply underrated and crucial part of this film — The Wrath of Khan isn’t just a good Star Trek film; it’s just a great film, easily one of the best films of the 20th century.

Perhaps the best way to sum up The Wrath of Khan’s impact came in 1996 in the Seinfeld episode “The Foundation,” when George Costanza (played by massive Trekkie Jason Alexander) said: “It was a hell of a thing when Spock died.” — Ryan Britt

3. “Far Beyond the Stars,” Deep Space Nine (1998)

Future-set as the Star Trek saga might be, the franchise can’t resist traveling back in time whenever the mood hits it. Some call it a feature, others a bug — but Deep Space Nine’s “Far Beyond the Stars” takes this trope into the stratosphere. The heart-wrenching episode, directed by Avery Brooks, finds Sisko buckling under the pressure of his post. He’s thinking of stepping down as captain when he suddenly slips into an alternate world: 1950s New York. There he’s just Benny Russell, a mild-mannered science-fiction writer suddenly compelled to pen a story about a Black space station captain.

Watching this cast shed their prosthetics to play hard-boiled new characters makes this episode great, but its exploration of race and oppression makes it fantastic. “Far Beyond the Stars” gifts Sisko the power of perspective. Even now, his present circumstances are the kind of future we could only dream of, and as Sisko’s haunting last words remind us, Deep Space Nine may never be more than just that: a beautiful dream. — Lyvie Scott

2. “The Corbomite Maneuver,” The Original Series (1966)

Not only a deeply underrated episode of TOS, “The Corbomite Maneuver” is also the most crucial episode of classic Trek for one simple reason: This was the first episode filmed of the regular series, following the first two pilots in 1964 and 1965, “The Cage,” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”

While “Where No Man Has Gone Before” was the pilot that sold Trek, it was, and still is, something of a rough draft of the overall final version of Star Trek. But “The Corbomite Maneuver” was the first regular episode of the show, even though it aired 10th, well into the run of Season 1 of TOS.

What makes “The Corbomite Maneuver” so impressive is not just the solid Star Trek premise — Kirk has to outwit a massive alien force with seemingly limitless technology — but that this is the first time that we have the entire, correct TOS ensemble together, and they’re all, right out of the gate, perfect. Kirk doesn’t even appear until after the cold open and opening credits, but when he does, we get into it right away: Bones is putting him through his paces with a physical, and Kirk’s got his shirt off, working out, like a boss. When the mysterious spinning cube blocks the path of the Enterprise, Kirk is furious with Bones for not telling him about the red alert early. DeForest Kelley, who was not in “The Cage” or “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (that was Dr. Boyce and Dr. Piper), nails his character in the very first scene, grumping: “What am I, a doctor, or a moon shuttle conductor?”

Kirk gets to teach Spock that sometimes the best way to deal with a superior foe is to play poker, not chess. Kirk’s bluff that the Enterprise will destroy the attacking ship, the Fesarius, hardly really matters in the end, because Balok’s true test of Kirk was to see if the Enterprise would show mercy. Written by science fiction author Jerry Sohl, and revised heavily by Gene Roddenberry, “The Corbomite Maneuver” is the episode that made Trek a real TV show, and it should be put in the time capsule as the best representative of The Original Series for one more reason.

Because, in the end, the scary space monster face — which appeared in the credits of Trek many, many times — is revealed to be its own kind of bluff, and Balok is nothing more than a super wise, laughing, childlike being played by a very young Clint Howard, when he was a child. This episode is so iconic, and so famous, that when George Lucas auditioned Howard to play Luke Skywalker in the first Star Wars a decade later, Lucas greeted Howard by saying: “Commander Balok! Corbomite Maneuver!” — Ryan Britt

1. “Encounter at Farpoint,” The Next Generation (1987)

If you’ve made it to the end of the list and you didn’t read the introduction, you’re probably furious! How could we rank “Encounter at Farpoint” as the best Star Trek ever? Well, we’re not saying this is the best Star Trek episode. At all. But if we’re talking about celebrating 60 years of Star Trek, this episode is the only reason we got past 20. Watched by 27 million people on Sept. 28, 1987, The Next Generation’s pilot episode was, from a ratings point of view, a runaway hit nearly right away, and the success of “Encounter at Farpoint” led to TNG being called “the highest-rated syndicated one-hour drama series on television.”

More than any other radical pivot in Star Trek’s history, the audacious concept of The Next Generation alone is worth reflecting on. Prior to 1986, the idea of Star Trek was inextricably linked to the famous characters from The Original Series. Before the show’s launch, the media — and plenty of fans — were already saying it wouldn’t work, and that the show would fail to make it out of orbit, let alone hit warp speed.

But all the haters were wrong. And that naysaying was disproved basically right away. Unlike The Original Series, which didn’t become a mainstream hit until after its cancellation, and arguably not a profitable theatrical gambit until after 1982, TNG justified its existence immediately, at least from a numbers point of view. Yes, critics were harsh on the early seasons (with some good reason), and it took a while for fandom to truly accept the new crew, but nearly everything good — and bad — about TNG is on display in the pilot episode. While the mystery of Farpoint station itself is a wonderful Trek premise (this city is really an alien!), the other, grander idea is that all of humanity was being put on trial by a mercurial space god named Q (John de Lancie). In a sense, this “trial of humanity” became the defining ethos of The Next Generation, and by extension, the rest of the franchise. Co-written by D.C. Fontana and Gene Roddenberry, the latter concept — which many in the writers room were convinced wouldn’t work — is 100 percent attributed to the Great Gird of the Galaxy himself.

Star Trek is often lauded because of its optimistic view of the future. However, within that idea, Roddenberry asserted something else: humanity will always need refinement, but also advocacy. Humanism isn’t a job that ends in the 24th century, because as much as we side with Picard, Q obviously has some valid points about our species. This is the conversation at the heart of Star Trek, and it’s these themes that have allowed the franchise to change, grow, and truly live long and prosper. — Ryan Britt

Every Star Trek TV show and movie — other than Star Trek: Prodigy — streams on Paramount+. Prodigy streams on Netflix.