Click here to read Part 1.

75. The Corbomite Maneuver- Kirk’s classic bluff from the episode of the same name. It worked so well the first time he even used it a second time in “The Deadly Years.” This is one of the great Trek examples of strategy winning a battle as opposed to who has the most fire power.

74. Guardian of Forever- “The City on the Edge of Forever” is widely argued as TOS’ best episode, and while I personally disagree with this (I would choose “Mirror Mirror” or “The Enterprise Incident” first) I always loved the Guardian. He was a big, mysterious, sentient doorway through time. I like that it was a different way to do time travel as opposed to sling-shotting around the sun, and the set-piece looked fantastic. He’s one of Trek’s most original cosmic entities.

73. Gorn- The Gorn is just too classic not to make the list. Kirk versus a big lizard– what more could you want? Until the last season of Enterprise in “In a Mirror, Darkly,” there had only been one appearance of a Gorn, and that was in TOS’ “Arena.” Yet everyone remembers it. I don’t know if it was the silly costume or what, but the Gorn has really stood the test of cultural memory– he’s up there with the tribbles in the category of Trek creatures a lot of people know about even if they aren’t Star Trek fans.

72. “All Good Things”- The last episode of TNG may have the most unintelligible technobabble in the series but it had also had everything else you could possibly want for the final ride: Picard jumping between the present, the future, and the first episode (“Encounter at Farpoint”), Q, and a closing scene where Picard finally joins the rest of the senior staff for a poker game. More than any other series, TNG is bookended; the first and last episodes are completely intertwined. For such an episodic show TNG has a very clear ending and it’s almost a shame it lead to movies… almost. Although “All Good Things” is certainly a better ending place for Picard’s crew than Nemesis.

71. Romulan ale- That blue, fantastic yet illegal drink starship Captains seem to always get their hands on. It’s one of those little cultural tidbits everybody remembers and it lead to that great McCoy line in The Wrath of Khan, “Beware Romulans bearing gifts.”

70. Spot and Porthos- Both Data’s cat and Archer’s dog helped make those characters feel more human. Spot is mostly memorable as a continuity error because his sex kept changing, but the cat also made some especially fun and memorable scenes– apparently he hated almost everyone except for Data. Porthos appears so often in Enterprise he feels almost like one of the main cast and his love for cheese is practically a running story arc throughout the series.

69. “In the Pale Moonlight”- The Dominion War episode of DS9 where Sisko is forced to do a number of underhanded things to bring the Romulans into the war. Unlike some of Archer’s darker moments which feel forced and out of character, when Sisko has a hand in killing a Romulan senator for the greater good, we the audience know it was wrong but are also sympathetic toward him– we ask ourselves if we may have done the same in his place. It’s one of my favorite ethical conundrums in Star Trek.

68. Communicator Pins- Used in all three 24^th century series, the communicator pin is a major trademark of Star Trek. It’s the natural progression from the flip-top communicators of TOS, which are basically modern cell phones now. They’re especially cool because they still feel pretty futuristic; you can tap it to activate it if you want to, but if you just start talking to someone else who’s wearing one, your pin will automatically know to transmit even if you didn’t tell it to.

 

67. “Year of Hell”- Probably the biggest and darkest Voyager episode. We get to see the ship almost completely crippled and follow the crew through an entire year as they try to stop Annorax from erasing them from history while they’re also barely surviving. The ending admittedly doesn’t make a great deal of sense, but by destroying the time ship Janeway somehow manages to erase all the damage that was done, and thus the two-hour epic we just watched never even happened. I don’t like that particular ending all the time, but I loved it here.

66. Romulan Warbird- One of the really distinctive ships in Trek. The TNG version is especially striking and even pretty menacing. It’s very often a big surprise when one decloaks out of nowhere. The Romulans are a species very much defined by their technology.

65. “Broken Bow”- Think what you want to about the rest of the series– we all naturally have our drastically different opinions about Enterprise– but for my money, this was a fantastic pilot. It sets up a Star Trek with technology much closer to our own and a crew that has to feel its way through every situation because no other humans have explored space before. For a moment it made Trek feel very fresh again, and while I really resent the Temporal Cold War I love the early style of the tech, the cramped feel of the ship, and the adventurous spirit of the crew.

64. Species 8472- I immediately loved this species because they weren’t humanoid and they didn’t have bumps on their foreheads. Being thrown way into the Delta Quadrant, I always thought it was a little silly that most species Voyager ran into were even more human-looking than a lot of TNG and DS9 races. Of course, these guys had to come from fluidic space, another plane of existence entirely… but still, decent CG for the day and a truly terrifying design for a TV budget. It was the one species that could defeat the Borg and they were an awesome enemy until it was decided in “In the Flesh” that they really weren’t so evil and the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding. They’d be higher on the list if it weren’t for that.

63. The Nexus- There are a lot of things I don’t like about Generations and I know the Nexus was a giant plot device… but it was a really cool plot device. I like the idea that there’s a place you could go and create your own reality– and it’s not like a holodeck. It really is very real. The ethical issue then is whether or not it’s real enough that you’re no longer responsible whatever you left back in reality. That idea created a fascinating and twisted villain in Tolian Soren.

62. The Tholian Web- The Tholians don’t just shoot your ship. They send a couple ships and build a big web to trap you in. That’s really bizarre and my favorite TOS space trap. It looks so cool that “Encounter at Farpoint” stole the design and made it the Q-Net.

61. Wormholes- Essential for Trek storytelling. The Gamma Quadrant wormhole is the temple of the Bajoran Prophets and it made it possible for the Star Trek part to make any sense at all in DS9’s title, considering it’s about a space station and not about exploring the galaxy. Wormholes are also used a lot in Voyager, maybe a little too much, but it was always fun when one would lead to the Alpha Quadrant because we could be pretty sure Voyager wouldn’t make it home and there was always some fun twist about what it really was. One time it was actually a giant space monster.

60. Kahless- He was essentially the Klingon equivalent of Jesus. The legend of Kahless establishes why Klingons are so devoted to honor and helps add credibility to the concept of a violent warrior race that could survive so long. He was invented in TOS but wasn’t really fleshed out until later TNG, and he even had a clone. The addition of religion into their culture made the Klingons far more interesting.

59. Klingon Bird of Prey- A lot like the Romulan warbird– cloakable and foreboding. It’s a little higher on the list because of the fun stuff they did with one in The Voyage Home, where we got to see it fly under the Golden Gate Bridge, land in the park and even hold a couple of whales.

 

58. Music- A lot of Trek characters play music and this ads a lot to their personalities. If Worf didn’t sing Klingon opera, he wouldn’t be Worf. Kim plays the obo, Riker plays the trombone, and Data plays the violin and probably everything else. Music has been the story drive for a number of episodes including “The Inner Light” with the Resicaan flute, “Lessons” where music allows us a surprisingly touching romance for Picard, and “It’s Only a Paper Moon” where the only thing that keeps Nog from a nervous breakdown after losing his leg is a jazz recording made by Vic Fontaine.

57. “Endgame”- The final episode of Voyager is excellent not only because it was huge– Borg Queen, future Janeway, the ship returning home– but it was also a pretty good end-all to Star Trek itself, or at least the 24^th century. The apparent destruction of the Borg and Voyager returning to the Alpha Quadrant gave the entire franchise closure. With the Borg gone, the Dominion War over and all this new futuristic technology at Starfeet’s fingertips, what new stories are there really to tell? Of course, Enterprise came next but it was a prequel and Nemesis really pales in comparison, both in plot and in heart.

56. Batleths- The Klingon sword of honor. These have become yet another iconic symbol for Trek, I think because they just look so different from weapons in any other sci-fi series. Like the Bird of Prey, these have helped to shape how we think of the Klingons. Batleths are practically as recognizable now as phasers and you can’t help but want to own one to display in your house.

55. “There are four lights”- This, except for “Make it so” is Picard’s most memorable line in TNG. I don’t know if it’s because he says it so many times or if we want to find something to laugh at in “Chain of Command” because it’s otherwise such a depressing and disturbing episode. To clear up the confusion fans often have, there really were four light– Gul Madrid tortured Picard by trying to make him say there were five lights. By shocking him whenever he’d say there were only four, he wanted to see if he could get Picard to really start seeing five. I get a chill every time I think about it.

54. The Xindi Conflict- After two seasons of independent episodes, Enterprise launched a 26 episode arc to try and boost ratings for its third season. I don’t think it really succeeded, but I certainly found much of that season to be quite gripping. The Xindi were really a fresh race for Trek, having five different races fighting for dominance, and the sphere network in the Delphic Expanse was a great mystery. More of the pieces are put together as the season goes on and the writers really follow through, eventually explaining everything and leaving no giant plot holes. This was the one time the show seemed to have a plan and knew exactly where it was going.

53. The Phoenix- Zefram’s Cochrine’s warp ship from First Contact. It helped us see a clear progression for ship technology. Its launch was quite epic and one of the most memorable images from any of the films.

52. Destruction of Enterprise D in “Generations”- This image was just a little more memorable. Unlike other ship destructions, we got to see the Enterprise drop out of the sky, go through a planet’s atmosphere, crash into the ground and scoot across it for a good long time before it finally came to a halt. It was especially impressive since it was done mostly (if not entirely) with model work.

51. Vic Fontaine- The hologram who was programmed to be sentient but unlike the Doctor, didn’t mind just being a hologram. He added a much-needed, lighter side to the last two seasons of DS9 and spiced up the show in an unusual but appropriate way. I’m a little biased because I happen to be a lover of jazz, but every time we see him we get to hear him sing and he’s fantastic. He became DS9’s Guinan in a lot of ways and he was ten times a better counselor than Ezri.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

Continue to part 3.

 

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Tags: Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Movies, science fiction, Star Trek, Television, The Next Generation, Voyager

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