I always like the space westerns best. I was never too interested in guys painted half white and half black, or space hippies looking for paradise.
My single most favorite episode from TOS was "the Doomsday Machine." The guest star was William Windom, as Commodore Decker, Captian of the Constellation. It was a great screenplay, with fine acting, and a compelling story.
A close second would be the episode about Captain Kirk's duel with the reptilian Gorn. I'm a geologist and am very familar with the "Vasquez Rocks" area where the battle scenes were shot. I realy enjoyed the slithering reptilian dialog ... "I will be mericful, Kirk." And then the cliffhanger, will Kirk outwit his physically superior opponent with technology!
Great stuff.
One of my favorites, too. I liked the confrontation with Decker and the bridge crew. Kirk saying, "Gentlemen, I suggest you beam me aboard" was great. I'm not the greatest fan of the Gorn episode. Another favorite is the Romulan bird of prey. Of course, "A Piece of the Action" was hilarious.
I watched a few of ST:TNG episodes and didn't like it. I can only think of a couple that were the slightest bit interesting: the one where they were caught in a time loop collision with an older ship, and the one where they thaw out people from the 20th century before confronting the Romulans. I thought the 20th century people were infinitely more interesting than Picard, et. al. Patrick Stewart is the worst actor and, IMHO, singlehandedly killed the series for me.
I haven't watched any of the other ST series. ST:TNG was too boring and I have no desire to see the others.
Westerns were very popular in the early 60s. Gene Roddenberry couldn't sell a SF show, but he plugged the show as a western set in space, and the NBC execs bought it.
Ah, that's one of my favorites as well. Great quotes: "Not with MY ship, you don't!!" and "Matt! There is no third planet!" (response): "Don't you think I know that?! There WAS a third planet, but not anymore!!"
Windom did a perfect "Captain Queeg", fidgeting with the computer tapes just like Bogart's character played incessantly with those ball bearings. That scene illustrates, too, what one of the problems with the newer Trek shows has been: too much dependance upon special effects and computer graphics. Sure, it's great eye candy - but the writing has, on the whole, suffered (when not even super FX can keep the audience interested, note how they opt for the easy way out, that is, more eye candy). Not that I object to Jeri Ryan wearing silver spray paint, mind you..
The Doomsday Machine dealt with the topic of nuclear weapons, but gave both sides. Yes, horrifically powerful weapons can destroy the society which produced them - but then again, the damn things sure come in handy when there's a big, bad threat headed your way.
A close second would be the episode about Captain Kirk's duel with the reptilian Gorn. I'm a geologist and am very familar with the "Vasquez Rocks" area where the battle scenes were shot. I realy enjoyed the slithering reptilian dialog ... "I will be mericful, Kirk." And then the cliffhanger, will Kirk outwit his physically superior opponent with technology!
That was not originally written as a Trek episode, but was a short sci-fi story which was adapted to the series (this was one of the strengths of TOS - real sci-fi writers, not people steeped in Trek canon). Hey, that was a Trek episode with an artillery barrage - that alone places it near the top of my list, too.
My favorite, though, is probably Balance of Terror, which echos such films as Run Silent, Run Deep.
Kirk asked the rock, "What did you offer them to get them to fight?"
The rock answered, "What they wanted most - power."
Kirk's reply. "You offered me the lives of my crew."
THAT was outstanding.
Shalom.