Lorerunner is putting together his end-of-rumination-series videos for TNG and DS9, and asked his viewers to vote for the most-rewatchable and least-rewatchable episodes for those shows. At least that’s how I interpreted the inquiry. Since I wasn’t watching his stuff back when he was doing Voyager, and he hasn’t done TOS or Enterprise yet, I figure I’ll just make my own list for all of the real Trek series that I’ve seen – so everything besides The Animated Series (which only had one season, so I don’t think it’d be worth it to make such a list anyways).

Again, this is a most (or least) rewatchable list, not a list of the best or my most favorite. Sure, there might be some overlap, but some of those episodes are really heavy, or might be part of two-parters where I don’t necessarily want to watch the other part, stuff like that. My thought process is: if I were going to, say, donate platelets, and was stuck watching something for an hour or so, what episodes would I take with me? And what would I absolutely never bring? I’ll start the list of Most Rewatchable, then make the list of Least Rewatchable:

Most Rewatchable

TOS

• The Enterprise Incident – A fun heist show, and the Romulan Captain is hot.
• Whom Gods Destroy – Garth is fun to watch every time.
• Balance of Terror – This is just a great episode, and the drama never gets old.
• The City on the Edge of Forever – Besides being one of the best episodes in the franchise, I really like the “fish out of water” aspect; this will come up again and again.
• Patterns of force – The Nazi episode, great fun.

TNG

• Tapestry – Picard and Q interactions at their best.
• The Chase – Good lore, and a fun episode about science, with all the major races participating.
• First Contact – A look from the other side of things; I like when the format is different (this will come up a lot too).
• Relics – It’s got Scotty, what more do you want?
• Face of the Enemy – Troi actually gets to do something major? And it’s good? Sign me up!

DS9

• Duet – This is my favorite episode, and I can rewatch it so much. Great acting, and important lore.
• In The Pale Moonlight – Again, doing something different. Very snappy pacing, and great payoff in the end.
• Trials and Tribbleations – This is just great fun.
• In The Cards – Right before things get serious, a comedy episode that works.
• Little Green Men – Another time travel episode, this time with Ferengi. The best stuff.

VOY

• Distant Origin – A VOY episode not primarily about Voyager and its crew? And Chakotay gets to do stuff? Neat!
• Non Sequitur – Repeat the above, but with Harry.
• Message in a Bottle – Repeat the above, but with the Doctor, and another doctor, and another ship.
• False Profits – More Ferengi means more fun.
• Dragon’s Teeth – Good to see the Voyager crew get what’s coming to them for once. Also a good lore ep for STO.

ENT

• Carbon Creek – Not really time travel, but may as well be. Vulcans in 50’s America? Nice.
• First Flight – Again, doing something different and fun, and good lore.
• The Andorian Incident – Shran is the man, and Vulcans get wrekt.
• The Catwalk – Different settings like this can be quite fun.
• Terra Prime – Great episode all around, and one of those rare two-parters where the second part is better than the first (and mostly can stand alone, which is why it’s here).

Least Rewatchable

TOS

• Miri – Kids in Trek is almost always bad.
• Assignment: Earth – As a kid I loved this, but it’s just not Trek (almost literally, if you know the background).
• And the Children Shall Lead – Again, kids.
• The Galileo Seven – Eh, just hard to watch, and not good.
• The Omega Glory – Pure cringe.

TNG

• Sub Rosa – Ghost sex, in my Star Trek? More likely than you might think!
• Shades of Grey – Hate clip shows.
• Devil’s Due – Fake supernatural stuff is the worst.
• Code of Honor – Season 1 is weird and bad, and this is the worst of it.
• The Outrageous Okona – Intentional comedy rarely works in Trek, and this is the worst.

DS9

• Meridian – Boring as hell.
• The Muse – Same
• Accession – Same
• Distant Voices – I really don’t like this sort of mind trip episode.
• Whispers – Worst of the Torture O’Brien episodes.

Voy

• The Chute – Don’t like the “We’re in jail” episodes, where the point is they’re in jail (as opposed to constant flashbacks as to why they’re in jail).
• 11:59 – One of those “out of time” episodes that doesn’t work in any way, AND is boring as hell.
• Tsunkatse – WWF crossover in my Star Trek?
• Spirit Folk – Boring holodeck bs with boring holodeck malfunction bs. Gross.
• Shattered – Just don’t care.

ENT

• A Night in Sickbay – Just absolutely terrible.
• These Are the Voyages… – Same
• Cogenitor – Character-breaking propaganda episode, even more cringe than The Omega Glory.
• Dear Doctor – Prime Directive episodes are usually skips, and this is the worst of them.
• Observer Effect – I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, and this ep is pure nightmare fuel. Also, not good to make up for that.