Just interested if there’s an episode of a particular series you find yourself going back to? Not necessarily “the best” or your favorite, just one you gravitate toward for a comfort re-watch? Here’s the episodes from each series I find myself re-watching a lot:
TOS: Mirror, Mirror (instant classic, love the episode)
TNG: The Offspring (favorite Data episode, gives me a lump in the throat)
DS9: The Visitor (similar feeling to The Offspring)
VOY: Blink of an Eye (brilliant episode, even if it apparently rips off a novel but it’s cool to see the concept on TV)
ENT: Similitude (love the drama, love the theme and emotions)
DIS: Need to rewatch the first four seasons to find an episode that I’d want to rewatch
PIC: Vox (Okay, for the ENT-D reveal…)
SNW: Momento Mori (the first season is way better than the second season, and this episode is really cool IMO)
Haven’t seen enough of TAS, Prodigy, and Lower Decks to select any.
That’s a tough one! Off the top of my head, I’d say the following:
TOS: The Doomsday Machine
TNG: The Offspring
DS9: Duet - Probably my favorite episode of any ST series.
LD: First First Contact
SNW: Memento Mori - I’ve only seen S1, hoping to watch S2 soon.
I’ve not watched much of TAS, VOY, ENT and PRO, so I didn’t mark them down.
DIS: ??? - I’ve seen up to S3 so far, but no particular episode that really sticks out unfortunately. Probably something in S2.
PIC: ??? - I’ve only watched S1, unfortunately no favorites.
I’ve got a lot of favorites, but these are the ones I probably most enjoy. It can change depending on the day though! There’s been a lot of really good episodes through the years.
I know it gets a lot of hate, but TNG: Masks. There’s no adversary, just the crew working together to solve a problem. The solution is based in understanding. For similar reasons, I like Cause and Effect and Time Squared.
I like Masks too :P
One of the episodes that stuck with me since I’ve been a kid.
Fun fact- the character named Corgana is named after Billy Corgan of smashing pumpkins. The writer was a fan.
There’s many, but I will limit myself to one per series, and I’ll refrain from most of the super popular episodes which I also love.
TOS: Corbomite Maneuver: for me this is the blueprint for all of Star Trek. You have Kirk dealing with a young officer, tactics “Not chess, mr. spock, poker” , coming to an understanding with an alien culture, just an insanely fantastic episode.
TAS: i like the series fine, but don’t really go back to any eps
TNG: Peak Performance: one of the earlier strong TNG episodes, it has the great data strategema scenes, riker and Wesley being clever, just lots of fun.
DS9: In the Hands of the Prophets: what a great way to make explore the religious/secular divides in society, and especially the creationism / intelligent design in classrooms debates. The episode is sympathetic without shying away from offering a perspective, and Keiko is just fantastic in the episode. Of course Kai Winn is always amazing. I do not understand why this ep isn’t held in the same light as duet and the visitor
Voyager: parallax: I believe this is not even regarded as a good voyager episode, but I love it. I always thought Janeway and Torres had amazing screen chemistry, and I just love how janeway comes around to the idea of Torres as chief engineer. Plus it has the classic lines “Warp Particles” and Paris’s “It’s the Voyager”
Enterprise: The series has its moments but I’m not too big on it
Discovery: At its best, the show is like good fanfic, at its worst it’s unbearable. I don’t go back to anything.
Picard: don’t particularly like the show. There were some great nostalgia moments in season 3 (I definitely shed a tear for the old ships), but such aggravating decisions (everything about the changelings in that season makes no sense)
Lower Decks: I would almost say the entire series, I’ve watched every ep so many times, but I will pick out Crisis point, which for me is the show’s beard growing moment. It was already good, but became amazing during that ep. Much like with the motion picture, the starship porn is my favorite part.
Strange New Worlds: really solid show so far, even if I disagree with some of their choices. It’s still new and I’m not sure what consensus is on best eps, so I’m just gonna go with my favorite which I’ve already watched several times; “Those Old Scientists” what a powerhouse of an ep, and such great performances from boimler and mariner.
Prodigy: show is okay, nothing I go back to.
DS9: The Visitor
“Computer, remove onions.”
“Beep-beep There are no onions in your room.”
“Dammit.”
A Fistful of Datas.
Since we’re talking comfort food and not best of/favourites:
TOS: The Immunity Syndrome.
I have no idea why. Seriously. It’s inexplicable. There are lots of better episodes (Balance of Terror, The Menagerie, The City on the Edge of Forever just to name a few), but something about The Immunity Syndrome makes for perfect chill out/nap TV for me…
TNG: A Matter of Time. I like the schadenfreude at the end.
TNG: Time’s Arrow part 1 & 2
DS9: Past Tense part 1 & 2
VOY: Distant Origins, The Haunting of Deck 12, Resolutions, Coda, everything JC :P
ENT: Twilight, Carbon Creek
Trouble with Edward (short trek)
PIC: Absolute Candor, Season 3
SNW: Spock Amok, Those Old Scientists
PRO: Time Amok, The World’s a Stage, Supernova part 1 & 2
Distant origins is such a great choice. I don’t purposefully go back to it, but adore it every time I watch it.
Many many episodes but I have a special place in my heart for VOY: Message In A Bottle.
“Stop breathing down my neck.”
“My breathing is merely a simulation.”
“So is my neck! Stop it anyway!”
DS9 - In the Pale Moonlight
Great acting and a very compelling story that’s not action driven, relying on its story, dialogue and fantastic acting. I mean, with top Garak and Sisko, what can go wrong?
TOS - Balance Of Terror, 12 plays TAS - Mudd’s Passion, 7 plays TNG - The Chase, 22 plays DS9 - The Ascent, 33 plays VOY - One, 27 plays ENT - The Catwalk, 11 plays (wtf?) DIS - The Wolf Inside, 19 plays LDS - No Small Parts, 20 plays PRO - Terror Firma, 5 plays PIC - All of season 1, 5 plays SNW - Ghosts of Illyria, 3 plays
I like a lot of the procedural legal ones.
Judgement - ENT
The Drumhead - TNG
Rules of Engagement - DS9
Author, Author - VOY
That being said I have a few others that are generally great.
Q2 - VOY - I just love the fact that Keegan DeLancie is actually John DeLancie’s son and he does a great job being a little shit Q.
The Inner Light - TNG - self explanatory
(this is cheating but) The Aenar 3-parter - ENT - Goddamn season 4 was so good, and I really wish we could see the Romulan war. I’d even settle for them doing an animated series with the cast’s voices to avoid age issues.
Yeah I agree ENT should have continued for at least one more season. The ideas they had for season five before they got the cancellation news sound awesome. If Im picking my favorite episodes, for ENT it would be United and Terra Prime probably. Also Judgment apparently is Scott Bakulas favorite episode of the series, interestingly enough.
Terra Prime is an excellent series finale ;)
Ends with a good speech too
I’m surprised The Measure of a Man isn’t on that shortlist for procedural episodes.
Oh yeah that’s a great one, not sure why I missed putting it down. Good call!
I adore VOY: The 37s. Janeway and Earheart have a really great character arc.
Any Romulan or Vulcan-centric episodes, especially TOS ones. I just like pointy ears, I guess? Edit: changed Romulan episodes to Romulan and Vulcan episodes.
TOS - Honestly, probably one of the cheesy episodes like The Way to Eden
TNG - Remember Me, I like the premise and that it’s a Crusher episode
DS9 - Bar Association, still as relevant as ever plus it’s got the Ferengi in it which is always fun
VOY - Let’s not kid ourselves, it’s Threshold
LDS - I, Excretus, I really like Boimler not only passing a test designed to be impossible but refusing to accept anything less than a perfect score
Everything else I either haven’t watched, watched too recently to have a comfort episode yet, or is too story driven for one episode to stand out over the rest
