Your Favorite "Star Trek" Episode? Which one resonates?

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Seems to me that many here would find that the "Charlie X" episode of the original Star Trek series resonates with them the most.

Though this episode was as unrealistic as they can get (Charlie's powers, the alien that zaps him into thin air off the ship at the end, etc.), it was a very moving, successful episode because it hits upon a very core need among humans: the need to feel they belong and fit in.

All throughout the episode, for those of you unfamiliar, poor teen Charlie keeps trying to fit in among the Enterprise crew, but keeps screwing up. He doesn't intend to, but he doesn't know how to interact with other people and keeps offending them. This frustrates him so much that he then starts having "meltdowns," but his version is to wield telekinetic powers onto people who get offended and cripple them. He goes overboard with this and starts flinging around his powers to anyone he passes in the corridors.

Very touching story, poor Charlie never meant to hurt anyone and only wants to belong.

Trivia: The actor who played 16-year-old Charlie, Robert Walker Jr., was actually 26.

I never saw it from that perspective. When I watched it I thought he was over-reacting.


I resonated with Barclay but I think he went too far with his augmented computer brain

Probably the one where there was a civilization with people who had black and white faces. If the black was in one side, the person was a member of the "oppressor" group; if the black was on the other side to the first person, that person was a member of the "oppressed" group.

This is from the "original series."

From TNG… Picard is zapped by an alien probe around a desolate planet. He lives out the rest of his life on a little village on the planet, in what seems like real time to him. He learns to play a musical instrument, has a family and stuff. It turns out to be a memory implanted in his mind as a tribute to the civilisation that lived on the planet and became extinct.

I cried.

That episode made me cry too. It was very touching

I like Data episodes.

The Offspring also made me cry. Data creates a new android and calls her his daughter. She breaks.

Data's Day is brilliant. The way he takes everyone literally when relaying messages between Miles and Kaiko.

In Theory. Data realises his colleague has a crush on him and tries to date her. It doesn't work out well. He tries really hard to emulate the perfect partner, but the feeling just isn't there

Hero Worship. A young boy who has lost his family attaches himself to Data and behind to immigrate him. Discovers he doesn't want to be an android.

I've only seen a few odd scenes, because I quickly noticed that the plots were based on available leftover scenery and costumes, but it wasn't being treated as a comedy. Nothing seemed plausible, including much of the acting. So, I'm glad that whatever I saw saved me vast amounts of time.

May the fourth be with you (ooops wrong franchise)

I also liked Data - i read where Gene Roddenberry was working on a different series that was never picked up about an android that didn’t know where he was from. Some of those ideas ended up being used for Data. I liked both him and Spock - i bought a replica Spock tunic for a skit i did at a Summer retreat house my 11 year old son wrote it - it was called “Who’s in the Engine Room” and was a rewrite of Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First”. I wanted my wife to the Red Urhora Replica Mini-dress but she would have none of it. My son wore his Command Gold Kirk Teeshirt.

Both Data and Spock never fit in. Data was more of the Poncho who wanted to be a Real Live Boy. Spock had some of that but mostly was aloof. Nurse Chapel had a thing for Spock. She was the same actress as “Number One” in the original pilot - only in that she was a brunette. She was also the voice of the Ship’s Computer and Councillor Troi’s Mother. I think there was a bit of Rodenberry in Spock and Data.

I liked the episode where Kirk and Spock went back in time and Spock had to “construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knifes and bear skins”. I often wanted to be like Spock and know all kinds of science and facts and be the guy with the answers who saved the day. Both Spock and Data would sometimes respond to questions with lists of facts. On one of my first jobs a co-worker came up to me and asked, only half jokingly “and how are you, my Vulcan friend?” How did he know?

I love Data. When anyone asks me how I am I often reply “everything is functioning within acceptable parameters”… well, they think I’m weird anyway.

Oooh oooh ooh - the episode of Deep Space 9 where they go back in time to “The Trouble with Tribbles”! Available in the Star Trek Time Travel Fan Collective dvd set. Worf (who was also the same actor as the African American motorcycle cop on CHiPs) says of TOS Klingons (with no forehead ridges) “they ARE Klingons and we do not talk about it with . . . outsiders!” This as the others in his party ask if this might be explained be several in-world possible explanations like genetic mutation or surgical alteration for the purposes of infiltration or negotiation which all sound like fan-boy theories.

What resinated with me was that it showed the new DS9 show runners liked the old schlocky TOS stuff as much as I did - and were even willing to wink at the glaring continuity errors.

I think Charlie X was a homage to this character:

The original series, season 1 episode 16, The Galileo Seven. Probably not my favourite episode as such, but it shows Spock getting into trouble when he tries to manage NTs. Doesn't show enough emotional distress when a crew member is killed, doesn't want to use up precious time on burial rituals. I saw it again not long ago, but it didn't live up to my expectations based on the memory of seeing it back in the day. The script didn't always make sense to me when it examined Spock's logical approach to problems.

"Balance of Terror" and "Journey to Babel".  They featured Mark Lenard in two different roles -- an unnamed Romulan commander and Sarek (Spock's father), respectively.  He brought immeasurable dignity to both roles.

There was one episode of the original series in which a woman working at a research station is killed by a 'salt monster', which takes on her appearance and starts murdering people in its quest for salt (which it needs to survive). It's not a particularly great or thought-provoking plot, but for some reason it has always 'resonated' with me, particularly the dramatic ending, which I found mildly disconcerting.