You know. 1966? 79 episodes about 30 good ones said Philip J. Fry of Futurama to the jarred floating head of Leonard Nimoy. This is his animated opinion of course but a better question is not how many are good but how many of the original Star Trek episodes are great. Would you believe 21?
Determining greatness is subjective of course. Popularity is not a fair indicator of quality and some fan favorites are guilty pleasures while others are fun but defective in ways that knock them down from great to merely good. Any episodes overall quality depends on multiple factors the uniqueness of the premise the quality of the writing the story beats the characterization guest stars action music production values and even visual effects.
Speaking of visual effects we are not talking about the 15 year old remastered CGI which already look dated and cartoonish. We are going O.G. all the way. The criteria here is ranking these as the total package rather than the sum of their parts. With that in mind heres a perhaps controversial list of the 21 greatest Star Trek The Original Series episodes.
Although humorous moments abound throughout the original Star Trek there are not many outright comedy episodes. In fact there are only three I Mudd A Piece of the Action and The Trouble with Tribbles. Most fans I know vote the straight Tribbles ticket but that episode is merely cute funny, whereas the over the top A Piece of the Action is actually genuinely funny. The script by Gene L. Coon is more absurd than Tribbles and features more comic business. The cherry on top was its helmer James Komac who was a gifted comedy writer and director of hundreds of episodes of shows including Welcome Back Kotter and Chico and the Man which he created.
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