star trek comedy episodes

The 20 Funniest Star Trek Episodes

Star Trek, a sci-fi franchise, has been known to tackle all kinds of genres within its series; here are example of when the series did comedy best.

When Star Trek is mentioned, most folks think of the drama. Throughout its various incarnations, Trek has provided truly groundbreaking storylines that make viewers think as well as be entertained. From views on religion, lifestyle, culture and even war, the franchise has moved fans to tears and shifted a lot of thinking. Which is why it’s so notable how downright funny the shows can be. There was always some humor with sharp lines going back to the terrific Spock/Bones banter. The other series continued that with some fun stuff. The Ferengi added comedy by how they went from supposed villains to money-hungry figures that made their antics better. That’s not to mention characters who are downright snarky geniuses, like Garak.

Several episodes are able to balance the drama with some lighter fare to stand out well. Even DS9 could bring some humor to brutal storylines so fans weren’t too broody. But even better is that Trek can embrace pure and full-on comedy wonderfully. True, some episodes don’t work out (quite a few from Voyager come to mind) but others work great. They have fun premises and the actors give their all to make it work nicely. While Enterprise didn’t offer a lot of these, the other Trek shows more than made up for it. Here are 20 of the funniest Star Trek episodes ever to show how it brought the laughs as much as drama for a sci-fi icon.

20 THE WAY TO EDEN, TOS

True, the funny in this mostly comes from how bad it is. Yet somehow, it makes for one of the few true joys of TOS’ final season. The Enterprise rescues six people from a cruiser being fired on by another ship. They are…well, there’s no other way to say it but that they’re space hippies. They’re led by the brilliant Dr. Sevrin who engages Spock in a long discussion that leads to Spock’s frank analysis that the guy is nuts. With horribly outdated slang, the group soon gets on Kirk’s nerves and he’s ready to dump that at the nearest starbase.

In response, the group pull off what has to be hands down the most ridiculous “take over a ship” plot in Trek history. Having tricked the crew into letting them do a concert with folk musical instruments, the hippies knock out the entire ship with a special ultrasonic frequency. They then fly it to a planet they’re convinced is paradise. The ending tries to be philosophical but just makes the story more ridiculous. If ever a Trek episode was “so bad it’s good,” it has to be this.

19 BODY AND SOUL, VOY

From the moment Seven of Nine joined Voyager , she and the Doctor connected. It made sense as Seven was a former Borg and the Doctor a hologram and each learning what it meant to be human. The chemistry between Jeri Ryan and Robert Picardo was good and led to some fun antics. None are better than in this episode as the duo are with Harry when they’re abducted by some smugglers. In order to keep from being erased, the Doctor hides his program inside of Seven’s neural implants and thus basically takes over her body. In other words, “Seven” is really the Doctor for most of this episode.

Ryan does an absolutely pitch-perfect impression of Picardo, nailing the Doctor’s arrogance and educated demeanor. There’s also joy in the Doctor indulging in cake, getting drunk and even making out with the alien captain. That sets up him briefly out of her body and Seven throwing a fit over his antics. Janeway’s reaction to the whole thing is priceless as well. Ryan and Picardo are obviously having pure fun with this to showcase how putting the two scene-stealers together created a fun-as-heck story.

18 IN THE CARDS, DS9

Ironically, the kick-off to this episode is everyone on the station being down because of the threat by the Dominion. Jake figures he can cheer up his father by getting a rare Willie Mays baseball card that’s being auctioned off. He needs Nog’s help as the Federation doesn’t actually use money anymore. They’re outbid by a scientist who offers to trade the card for some services. Jake and Nog go around the station in a variety of weird jobs which actually ends up boosting the crew morale. When the scientist goes missing, Jake actually accuses Kai Winn of having something to do with it which causes Sisko to explode in anger.

It turns out the slimy Vorta Weyoun is behind this. He saw the goings-on and has become convinced Jake and Nog are on a secret mission of some sort (“the fate of the galaxy may rest on finding this Willie Mays and stopping him.”) Jake and Nog actually try to spin the story of Mays being a time traveler which is too outlandish even for Weyoun. It’s a terrific showcase for Jake and Nog’s friendship as their whacky hijinks actually end up working out in the end.

17 LIFE LINE, VOY

What’s better than one hammy Robert Picardo performance? Two of them bouncing off each other. Having found a communications link to the Alpha Quadrant, Voyager has been using the Doctor to talk to Starfleet. The Doctor learns that his creator, Lewis Zimmerman, is dying and naturally wants to help him. It doesn’t take long for the Doctor to realize Zimmerman is basically himself taken to the tenth power. An incredibly arrogant man, Zimmerman hates how the holograms that boasted his face are now being used for menial labor around the galaxy. This means some major clashes between the Doctor and his creator who is a horrible patient.

It was a challenge for Picardo to play against himself but he manages it well. A beautiful touch is Deanna Troi being brought in to try and mediate things between this “father and son” pairing. Instead, the duo’s constant bickering actually causes Troi to lose her cool and berate them both. Throw in everyone’s favorite geeky tech Barclay (Dwight Schultz) with his holographic iguanas and insects and it just gets wilder. There is a warm ending of the two finally bonding and each helping the other yet the comedy of seeing two versions of Picardo makes it a great episode

16 THE MAGNIFICENT FERENGI, DS9

When one thinks of the Ferengi, “warriors’ is never a label that comes to mind. Which is why this spin on the classic movie is so much fun. Quark and Rom learn their mother has been abducted by the Dominion and have to figure out a rescue plan. They gather a team that includes Nog, Quark’s cousin, a nutjob and long-time nemesis Brunt. Quark gets them to help by promising shares of the 20 bars of gold the Nagus is offering (it's really 50 bars). They begin to run simulations of the raid on the holodeck which just shows how utterly inept they are as commandos (not only do they kill Quark’s mom but also each other).

Quark decides they need to do this the Ferengi way….by being sneaky and conniving cheats. They find a Dominion agent the Federation captured and offer to exchange him for Quark’s mom. Of course, things go off the rails as they end up accidentally killing their own hostage. Suddenly, we go from Seven Samurai to Weekend at Bernie’s as the Ferengi use a device to make the corpse walk to pull off the deal. Watching the banter of these morons is comedy gold that DS9 has rarely matched. It’s a scheme only Quark could manage to pull off for a hysterical episode that make the Ferengi heroes…of a sort.

15 TAKE ME OUT TO THE HOLOSUITE, DS9

It’s odd that the final season of Deep Space Nine , a year marked with a lot of darkness and destruction, boasts one of the funniest episodes of the entire series. Sisko reunites with Solok, an old Vulcan rival from his Academy days. Solok has long promoted Vulcans being superior to humans at anything. He wants to prove it by challenging Sisko to that exclusive Earth game of baseball. At first, Sisko is confident his crew can rise to the challenge. Sadly, Sisko has vastly overestimated his crews’ understanding of the game. It takes one holosuite practice for Sisko to realize the “Niners” make the Bad News Bears look like the New York Yankees.

Watching a man who has handled the deadliest alien threats completely lose it over baseball is glorious. Not helping is Odo jumping into the role of umpire and tossing Sisko out of the game. There’s touches from O’Brien chewing gum laced with Scotch to Worf treating this like an epic battle. The ending is fun in how the team claim a moral victory to show up the Vulcan after all. They may be bad ball players but that just made this episode even funnier.

14 DEJA Q, TNG

Long before the Internet as we knew it existed, this TNG episode was providing fodder for future memes. The Enterprise is watching a moon threatening to crash into a planet when suddenly, a naked Q pops onto the bridge. It seems the Continuum have finally had enough of Q’s antics and so have stripped him of his powers. At first, the crew think Q is just playing one of his tricks until an alien race attacks him. Q is forced to admit that he came to the crew for protection as the slews of races he’s mistreated over the years are coming for payback.

Watching the arrogant Q forced to learn some humility is a genius idea. From back aches to what to eat, Q has no idea how to be a regular person and it shows. The crew are taking delight in seeing Q taken down a thousand pegs (Guinan actually stabs his hand with a fork) and his attempts to help just make things worse. It ends with Q being reinstated and celebrating with a mariachi band. This is the episode that gave us both the “Picard face-palm” and “Data laughing” images that become meme icons to show what a laugh riot it is.

13 YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED, DS9

After several episodes involving some of the most brutal fights of the Dominion War, DS9 needed to lighten up a bit. Thus, we have Dax and Worf tying the knot on the station. The crew figure it’ll be fun and are unprepared for the Klingon rituals involved. Instead of a stag party, Bashir and O’Brien are subjected to nights of fasting, hung over hot rocks and some other painful antics. Meanwhile, Jadzia throws a wild bachelorette party with dancing and drink that leaves the centuries-old Trill hung over.

We get some drama as a Klingon noblewoman threatens to call the whole thing off due to Worf’s difficult status with the Empire. That sets up arguments between the bride and groom that threaten to derail the wedding. They do come together to finally marry in a great ceremony topped by Bashir and O’Brien getting a chance at revenge on Worf. Leave it to a Klingon ceremony to bring some levity to a darker DS9 period.

12 TINKER, TENOR, DOCTOR SPY, VOY

From the beginning, this episode shows some fun. The Doctor is wowing everyone in the mess hall with his great singing voice. This causes Tuvok to break into an emotional outburst with the Doctor calming him down via song. Naturally, it’s just one of the Doctor’s daydreams which have been occurring more lately. We see more of them which includes Torres, Janeway and Seven fighting for his affections and then taking up command of the ship himself. The Doctor doesn’t realize that his dreams can be accessed via the holodeck and is deeply embarrassed when the crew stumble onto them.

As it happens, an alien scout has mistaken the dreams for reality and used them to encourage his fleet to attack Voyager. Realizing his mistake, the alien reaches out to the Doctor to solve things. The Doctor must thus pose as the “Emergency Command Program” after all but is far less effective in reality than in his fantasies. It’s a funny storyline that gives the Doctor a chance to shine nicely as a comedy player.

11 LITTLE GREEN MEN, DS9

Put Quark, Rom and Nog together and trouble inevitably follows. The trio are embarking on a “family trip” to take Nog to Starfleet Academy. The typical Trek accident occurs which opens a portal and dumps the shuttle onto Earth. Specifically, Roswell, New Mexico in July of 1947. Yes, the three Ferengi were the “Roswell aliens.” The initial comedy comes from the humans trying to understand the Ferengi language which includes acting out games while the Ferengi treat them like utter lunatics. There’s also the Ferengi amazed at everything from humans smoking to them touching their ears.

Ignoring Rom and Nog’s warnings not to change the timeline, Quark plans to use his knowledge of the future to make a fortune. He seems to be doing well until he tries to impress the humans by making them believe the Ferengi are going to invade Earth. This almost puts the trio on the dissection table before Odo (who had stowed on board) is able to rescue them. Even then, we get bits on how they break out of the base. Their method of returning to the future is unique as the episode shows how Ferengi are comedy gold in any era.

John de Lancie was always a delight as Q, even in his later years. Voyager had played with the storyline of Q needing Janeway’s help to prevent a civil war in the Continuum. This involved he and a female Q creating their own child. In their view of time, the boy is now a teenager (who, in a clever touch, is played by de Lancie’s real son, Keegan). Teenagers are a hassle already but one with the powers of an omnipotent being is giving Q headaches. He thus turns to Janeway for help. The kid is a chip off the old block with everything from taking away Seven’s clothes to setting the ship against the Borg just for kicks.

It’s glorious watching Q at his wit’s end. He even pops in on Janeway while she’s in the bathtub to try and get advice. For long-time fans, the true fun is how Q is being hit by the classic curse of a kid that’s just like the person Q used to be. Poor Janeway has to play godmother to this mess with Q2 stripped of his powers but still causing mischief. This was Q’s final appearance and it was fitting to show how even an all-powerful being is out of his league understanding a teenager

9 MORE TRIBBLES, MORE TROUBLE, ANIMATED

In between the original series and the movie revival, the cast took part in a 1970s animated series. The animated format allowed for storylines that couldn’t be done in live action and often played on past TOS episodes. It thus made sense to do a full sequel to one of the best TOS episodes ever. The Enterprise sees a Klingon ship attacking a small cargo vessel and move to stop it. The ship’s captain is none other than Cyrano Jones, the merchant behind the original Tribble mess. He claims he’s “fixed” the Tribbles so they no long multiply and can’t understand why the Klingons are after him.

McCoy soon finds the flaw in Jones’ “cure”: The Tribbles don’t multiply but just get incredibly larger as they eat. We thus have the sight of Kirk finding a massive Tribble sitting in his captain’s chair and musing “I’ll allow it.” When the Klingons shoot a Tribble, it just breaks apart into a thousand more. It’s a good balance of action and comedy as once more, the Tribbles are used as weapons. And once more, Kirk ends up buried in them to show these little furballs cause trouble at any size.

8 A PIECE OF THE ACTION, TOS

Due to budget issues, the original Trek did a lot of episodes of the Enterprise crew meeting cultures much like old Earth. This episode actually presents a fun twist on the idea while offering great comedy. The Enterprise visits the planet Iotia which had been visited by a Starfleet vessel a century earlier. Beaming down, Kirk and Spock see a world that looks just like 1920s Chicago only with crime literally the only way of life. It seems that the earlier ship had left behind a book on the gangster culture which the naïve aliens used to build their entire society. The leader, Omnyx, wants the Federation to give him weapons to use against his rivals or he kills some hostages.

It’s a nutty set-up but it actually makes sense to allow the story to shine. The fun begins when Kirk distracts some guards by creating the most complicated card game in history. It amps up as he and Spock dress up in the period outfits and Spock figures out how to drive an old-styled car. Kirk decides he needs to talk to the aliens in their own language and it’s beautiful hearing William Shatner doing his best James Cagney impression. Even Spock can’t resist getting into the act. It may look crazy but it’s one of the best uses of a past era in TOS .

7 MENAGE A TROI, TNG

Any episode with Lwaxana Troi is bound to have some laughs in it. This is undoubtedly the best of the entire bunch. The Enterprise is visiting Betazed which naturally means Lwaxana is on board and hitting on Picard. She brushes off the attraction of a Ferengi named Tog as she’s more interested in pushing Deanna and Riker back together. The group is on a picnic when Tog abducts the two women and sets about to woo Lwaxana. Given how Ferengi’s views of females are…debatable to say the least, this doesn’t go very well.

Majel Barrett brings her usual charm and sass to the role with Lwaxana playing along with Tog’s moves in order to facilitate an escape. Riker and Troi also try to break out while the Enterprise is on the chase. This sets up one of the single greatest scenes in the show’s history as, to buy time, Picard proclaims his love for Lwaxana to Tog. Patrick Stewart goes beautifully over the top spouting out poetry and hamming it up to the point you can clearly see the other actors fighting not to break character. It’s the capper to a funny episode to show Lwaxana brings out the humor in anyone.

6 I, MUDD, TOS

This episode starts off dramatic but that doesn’t last long. A new crewman turns out to be a robot who hijacks the Enterprise and takes it to a distant world. Beaming down, who should the crew find sitting on a throne but our old friend, Harry Mudd? The smarmy con artist escaped jail and crashed on this world filled with androids, many of them beautiful women. He also has an android of his shrew of a wife who “inspired” Mudd to travel into space. The robots feel lost without anyone to serve so Mudd is giving them the Enterprise crew while he leaves. But the robots decide to keep him on as their "desire to serve" translates to "take over the galaxy."

Roger C. Carmel is a joy as Mudd whose bluster and arrogance is truly appealing. That he joins with the crew fast to save his own skin sets up their great ideas to overwhelm the robot’s logic circuits. This includes wild dancing in their jail cell (Chekov doing some flying kicks), Uhura pretending to join the androids, laughing at “executing” Scotty and incredibly complex world play. The ending gives Mudd his well-deserved comeuppance and close out an episode showing how everyone has a little madness in them.

5 QPID, TNG

While he was usually the stern commander, Picard could also be a great adventurer. In an earlier episode, Picard had a brief fling with Vash, a sneaky thief. When she shows up on the Enterprise, Picard reunites but is wary of her intentions. Q then pops in, wanting to repay Picard for helping him out in “Deja Q.” Sensing Picard’s feelings for Vash, Q decides to test them out. He creates a massive fantasy of Sherwood Forest with Picard as Robin Hood, Riker as Little John, Data as Friar Tuck and the rest of the crew dragged in. They need to rescue Marian (Vash) from the evil Prince John with Q, of course, as the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Just the sight of the crew in these outfits is priceless as we get Worf’s immortal complaint “sir, I protest! I am not a merry man!” From Troi shooting arrows into Data to Worf smashing Geordi’s lute, the crew stand out wonderfully. Vash also throws things off by playing her own game. The big finale gives Picard a chance to show off his sword fighting skills while Q is as smarmy as always with his lines. It’s a delightful romp that shows Patrick Stewart would have made a terrific Robin Hood in his youth.

4 LOOKING FOR PAR’MACH IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES, DS9

Mixing Star Trek with Cyrano de Bergerac is already promising. Having it be with Klingons just makes it better. In an earlier episode, Quark entered into a temporary marriage with Klingon noblewoman Grilka. Grilka returns to the station and Worf is swiftly attracted to her. However, as he’s been disowned by the Klingons, he has no chance. Quark wants to woo Grilka for real but her bodyguard challenges him to a duel. As Quark has no fighting experience, Worf uses a device to replicate fighting on a holodeck so Quark can pull off the duel…only for it to break.

It’s fun watching Worf the lovelorn guy while Quark actually lands a hot Klingon lady. There’s also a subplot of Kira (having to carry the O’Briens’ child) and Miles going on a trip together which is uncomfortable. But the real focus is on the Klingon stuff with Worf and Quark having a funny banter. This also leads to the big turn of Worf and Dax getting into a fight that unleashes passions. The payoff is Bashir tending to both couples for various injuries and deciding he doesn’t want to know what caused them. While giving us the great Worf-Dax pairing, this episode is also a fun spin on a classic story.

3 THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES, TOS

Whenever lists of the best Trek  episodes are made, this is generally in the top 10. That’s no surprise given what an utter gem of comedy it is. The Enterprise has been summoned to a space station where an arrogant Federation official wants them to guard a storage locker of grain meant for a colony world. Kirk can’t believe he’s being wasted on this but puts up with it even as some Klingons show up. Soon, merchant Cyrano Jones is handing out Tribbles, small furry cooing creatures that even Spock enjoys. The issue is that Tribbles are hungry and the more they eat, the more they multiply.

William Shatner’s performance is beautiful to watch as Kirk is slowly driven crazy by this entire situation. The writing is great and we get some fun moments like Scotty brushing aside a Klingon insulting Kirk....but when he insults the Enterprise , Scotty starts a bar brawl. There’s also the now iconic sight of Kirk completely buried in Tribbles that keep falling on top of him through an entire scene. The ending is one of the best in Trek history to close out a great mix of sci-fi comedy brilliantly.

2 BRIDE OF CHAOTICA!, VOY

Rarely has Voyager , or any Trek series, gone as full-out comedy as this. For some times, Paris has been obsessed with “Captain Proton,” a holodeck program based on old 1930s adventure serials. He’s thrown when he discovers that aliens from another dimension have mistaken the program for reality and launched an attack on it. This leads to various malfunctions across the ship (Janeway treating the loss of coffee as a red alert condition) and needs to be fixed. The scene of Tom matter of factly explaining this ridiculous situation to the crew is terrific.

This leads to Tom’s plan to trick the aliens by using the program’s villain Chaotica’s “death ray” to fight back. Which gives us the utterly glorious sight of Janeway dressed up as the “alien queen” Arachnia to seduce Chaotica. At first hating this, Janeway soon gets into the act, going wildly over the top and Kate Mulgrew is clearly having a blast with her performance. Never has a holodeck malfunction set up such a gem of a Trek comedy episode.

1 TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS, DS9

As part of the 30 th anniversary of the franchise, this DS9 episode was an utter treat for fans. The Defiant is transporting a figure who turns out to be the aged Arne Darvin, the spy from the original “Tribbles” episode. His life ruined thanks to that incident, Darvin uses an orb to send the ship back in time as he plans to kill Kirk in the past. The crew have to stop him which leads to bits like Dax in the classic Starfleet “mini-skirt” uniform and the rest of the crew interacting with the events of that episode (meaning O’Brien takes part in the bar brawl).

The comedy is terrific like the group gasping at how different the TOS Klingons were and Worf simply grumbling “we do not discuss it.” Worf also treats Tribbles as the worst thing ever while O’Brien is amazed at how backward the vaunted Enterprise’s technology is. It’s brilliant how it fits, complete with Sisko and Dax tossing Tribbles onto Kirk. The framing device of Sisko explaining to a pair of Federation officials leads to fun shots on time travel clichés. The payoff is a wonderful final shot that closes out an episode that honors Trek’s history while also being a laugh riot.

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The Funniest Episodes of the Entire Star Trek Franchise of All Time, Ranked

Live long and LOL

As Star Trek: Lower Decks closes out a fourth season filled with more laughs than hungry Tribbles can fit in a storage container of quadrotriticale, tapping the comedy potential of Star Trek franchise — a tradition dating all the way back to the first season of The Original Series over 50 years ago — has proven incredibly durable; even the latest live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , has frequently, and quite successfully, plotted a course into humorous territory.

Indeed, the whole Star Trek franchise has a long and storied history with comedy, with just about every corner of the franchise firmament mining the series' sci-fi premise for laughs. Here then, are the 20 funniest installments of Trek (not including Lower Decks, with its Prime Directive of jokes-at-warp-speed, or any episodes that, frankly, are so unintentionally bad that they're kind of hilarious — sorry, "The Way to Eden" and "Up the Long Ladder").

Rosa Salazar, Star Trek: Short Treks

20. "The Trouble with Edward" ( Short Treks , Season 2, Episode 2) Taking both a cue and plot inspiration from one of Trek's most legendary forays into humor, this Short Treks take adds its own quirky and daresay macabre twist on the venerable Tribble trope via Edward Larkin, a stubbornly single-minded, malcontent scientist on the USS Cabot (played to prickly perfection by H. Jon Benjamin ), whose misguided attempt to create a perpetually self-sustaining food source out of the adorably fuzzy aliens leads to darkly comic catastrophe.

19. "Body and Soul" ( Voyager , Season 7, Episode 7) In a variation on the tried-and-true body-swapping genre, the Doctor's holographic essence is incorporated into Seven of Nine's Borg matrix when Voyager runs afoul of aliens with anti-photonic being sentiments. The principal pleasures of this episode come from Jeri Ryan 's wickedly spot-on impression of Robert Picardo 's cranky EMH's tone and mannerisms whenever Seven cedes control of her form to him.

18. "The Elysian Kingdom" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 1, Episode 8) Among the handful of Trek episodes that thrust familiar crewmembers — and the actors behind them — into alt-reality roles, none are as indulgently, deliriously silly as this one, which finds the Enterprise immersed into a Princess Bride -esque fairy tale narrative, one that allows the cast — in particular, Anson Mount as a fawning/scheming courtier and Christina Chong as a sing-song, tiny-dog-toting princess — to gleefully chew the scenery in their storybook personas.

17. "The Magnificent Ferengi" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 6, Episode 10) Brilliantly casting the franchise's most notoriously scruples-free species, led by Quark, Rom and Nog, as a gang of misfits united Dirty Dozen -style for a heroic mission, this episode deftly juggles all its comedic elements, action beats, and plot-twists — it even unexpectedly but successfully veers into Weekend at Bernie's territory. All that and Iggy Pop as the Cardassian Big Bad!

16. "The Escape Artist" ( Short Treks , Season 1, Episode 4) After two decidedly menacing outings as Harry Mudd, actor Rainn Wilson (who also directed) at last gets to delve into the more amusing aspects of the intergalactic con artist in this cleverly plotted ode to Mudd's boundless capacity for duplicity in pursuit of profit, with a novel payoff that's both funny and a fitting callback to Mudd's funniest TOS appearance.

15. "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" ( Voyager , Season 6, Episode 4) An espionage spoof that takes great advantage of both actor Robert Picardo's facility for comedy and The Doctor's overabundant confidence and equally fragile ego as aliens mistake the EMH's "daydream" subroutine for Voyager's reality — yet it somehow also delivers a poignant take on the Doctor's bid for greater respect and responsibility among the crew. And the B-plot — featuring Paris' novel solution for Tuvok's pon farr problem — is about as deadpan amusing as a Vulcan storyline can get. 

14. "Ménage à Troi" ( The Next Generation , Season 3, Episode 24)  Deanna's "Auntie Mame"-channeling mother Lwaxana Troi always livens up the proceedings whenever she pops into the Trek -verse, but none of her escapades are as fast-paced and funny as this farcical bit of business, in which a besotted Ferengi kidnaps her in hopes of forcing a tactically advantageous marriage. Majel Barrett is at her most formidable and funny in the role here, and her persistent flirtations with Picard provide a terrific climatic punchline.

DeForest Kelly, Star Trek

13. "Shore Leave" ( The Original Series , Season 1, Episode 16) After some tiptoeing into comedy, this episode marks The Original Series ' first foray into a largely humorous episode (even with ravenous tigers, marauding samurai, and strafing fighter planes), and the planetary playground where random musings come to thrilling life set the template for the future holodeck, the stage-setter for many of Trek's best comedies. It smartly leans heavily on the wry, laid-back charms of DeForest Kelley and offers an early reveal of William Shatner 's inherent comedic gifts during his donnybrook with his obnoxious Starfleet Academy tormentor Finnegan.

12. "Spock Amok" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 1, Episode 5) In another wittily plotted body-swap, Spock and T'Pring's Vulcan soul-sharing exercise inadvertently causes them to switch minds just as Spock must help conduct a crucial diplomatic mission with an empathetic species uber-sensitive to nuance, resulting in a classic comedy of manners as the engaged Vulcans try each other's lives on and gain a better understanding of the demands each grapples with. The " Enterprise Bingo" B-plot, showing off the lighter sides of Starfleet super-pros Una and La'an, is equally disarming.

11. "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 7, Episode 4) The usually very straightlaced and disciplined Sisko drives the comedy — much to actor Avery Brooks ' clear delight — as he unravels while trying to best his longtime Vulcan rival Solok in a game of holodeck baseball. Does the storyline of a ragtag group of players coming together as a team against all odds, with the least of them — Rom — getting a shot to shine, smack of The Bad News Bears and a zillion similarly structured sitcom episodes? Absolutely. Does it all still work wonderfully? Absolutely. Go Niners!

10. "Q-pid" ( The Next Generation , Season 4, Episode 20) There's a lot of setup in the first half of the episode, reuniting Picard with Vash, his scoundrel dalliance from Risa and creating romantic tensions between them, while also bringing Q into the mix late in the game, but the payoff is totally worth it when Q's omnipotent powers transport the crew to his vision of Sherwood Forest and the subsequent swashbuckling silliness is amped up to 11, and Worf irritably delivers one of the funniest line readings in all of Trek history: "I am NOT a Merry Man."

9. "I, Mudd" ( The Original Series , Season 2, Episode 8) The mothership series always demonstrated an ingrained sense of playfulness, but really cuts loose in this outing, which in his second appearance transforms Harry Mudd from a dangerous conniver into a much more comedic rogue (both incarnations deftly played by the great character actor Roger C. Carmel ). The society of assorted identical android models is minded for every amusement, the entire supporting cast gets in on the fun (Chekov's Cossack dance! Spock's android-breaking amore!), Shatner plays Kirk with the lightest possible touch without ever sacrificing his dignity, and Mudd is served with some hilarious (if perhaps outdated, to current sensibilities) poetic justice.

8. "Badda-Bing Badda-Bang" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 7, Episode 15) Inspired by great caper-film jaunts like Ocean's Eleven , this is similarly brimming with a sense of Rat Pack-y fun and swagger from start to finish as the crew of the space station crafts a dizzying, clockwork plot — complete with unexpected complications and a reluctant hero (for compelling reasons) in Sisko — to restore photonic crooner Vic Fontaine, deposed by gangster rivals and a glitchy holodeck program, to his rightful place atop the swinging version of '60s-era Las Vegas.

7. "Bride of Chaotica!" ( Voyager , Season 5, Episode 12) Among the top-tier of the "holodeck goes awry" sub-genre and filmed largely in glorious black-and-white to evoke the low-budget, kinda-cheesy sci-fi movie serials of old that inspired Tom Paris' "Captain Proton" hologram — mistaken here by light-based beings for the crew's actual reality — the episode is a lark from start to finish, but never more amusingly so than when Kate Mulgrew takes center stage when Janeway swans imperiously around posing as the titular bride Queen Arachnia. 

6. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home While the first series offered a fair share of comedically inclined episodes, this entry in the film franchise cemented Trek's willingness to have fun with itself — with terrific results — in the public consciousness, well before the many spin-offs joined the sandbox. Credit Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer's inspired script for tweaking conventional Trek tropes and finding fish-out-of-water hilarity (not to mention Meyer's particularly sparkling, witty dialogue), director Leonard Nimoy 's established facility for handling both light comedy and the demands of the franchise framework, and the classic crew's sheer gameness to add renewed twinkle to their long-established roles.

5. "A Piece of the Action" ( The Original Series , Season 2, Episode 17) Bouncing off a fresh sci-fi story springboard involving the unintentional cultural contamination of an alien planet — a left-behind book about the Chicago mobs of the '20s remade the world into a planet of tough-talking, Tommy gun-toting gangsters — this episode runs headlong into its comic Guys and Dolls  potential, with William Shatner utterly stealing the show (amid sharp performances including Nimoy and those of guest actors Vic Tayback and Anthony Caruso ) as a pinstripe-suited Kirk leans harder and harder into his newly adopted, tough-talking performance as the ultimate boss of bosses.

Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

4. "Those Old Scientists" ( Strange New Worlds , Season 2, Episode 7) The anarchic comic energy and furiously paced one-liners of Lower Decks merged seamlessly with the majestic, old-school sensibilities of Strange New Worlds — itself no stranger to embracing the off-kilter — when the former's Boimler and Mariner make a live-action beam-in to crossover with the fellow Trek franchisee. Thanks in large part to the fact that Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome could also perfectly physically embody the Lower Decks characters they give voice to and serve the meatier timey-wimey story well, the episode is packed with laughs without violating the established tone and tenor of SNW .

3. "A Fistful of Datas" ( The Next Generation , Season 6, Episode 8) "Fistful" finds countless opportunities to satirize the well-worn Western genre, particularly by casting three of the series' most unlikely characters — Worf, Alexander, and Troi — in the Frontier Hero roles. But using the holo-glitch at the center of the jeopardy to populate the program with multiple Old West iterations of Data — each brilliantly dileneated and mined for maximum hilarity by Brent Spiner — was the stroke of genius that makes this one the ne plus ultra of holodeck-mishap episodes, and the final riding-off-into-the-sunset visual gag is the cherry on top.

2. "Trials and Tribble-ations" ( Deep Space Nine , Season 5, Episode 6) It's as if this episode — made to fondly mark by franchise's 30th anniversary by paying tribute to one of TOS 's most beloved episodes — is just daring die-hard and casual Trek fans alike not to grin from ear to ear throughout, with the DS9 crew traveling back in time and becoming enmeshed in the classic "The Trouble with Tribbles" mission. Its retro production and costume design, devilishly clever weaving of new characters and plot into decades-old footage, and nods to Trek lore both savvy and subtle make it packed with warm humor as it is with storytelling creativity.

1. "The Trouble with Tribbles" (The Original Series, Season 2, Episode 15) Long the gold standard for the lighter side of Star Trek , one of the aspects that makes this episode such tremendous fun is that with all of its baked-in comedic elements — the adorable, prolifically reproducing, Klingon-hating fuzzy aliens; a trash-talking Klingon igniting a full-on barroom brawl by disparaging the Enterprise , rather than its stalwart captain; smooth-talking trader Cyrano Jones; and Kirk's not-so-veiled contempt for uptight middle managers — all of the merriment somehow still fits perfectly within the series' established sci-fi framework, bending but not breaking the format. Audiences may have previously laughed at cheap, clunky, and ill-conceived genre efforts before, but here they got to laugh with the smartly made, ambitious show as it winked knowingly at itself. Thus "Tribbles" boldly set — and maintains — the high bar for all Trek romps to follow.

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Star Trek’s Funniest Episodes: From ‘The Original Series’ to ‘Enterprise’ and Beyond

It’s never good to over analyze those special things in life which simply make us happy. Thankfully, it’s a simple equation to balance. For fan’s of Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi vehicle, it’s really this simple:

Star Trek is funny. It makes us laugh.

Season after season, the many TV shows which chronicle the cosmic adventures of majestic Starship Enterprise, far from home U.S.S. Voyager and the wildly chaotic, telenovela station of Deep Space Nine bring on the truly funny more hilariously and elegantly than many of the highest rated Hollywood sitcoms. Friends , Golden Girls , Seinfeld , How I Met Your Mother – eat your chuckle-stained hearts out!

The funny fact : Star Trek does comedy like no other show.

On the surface, this declaration of comic goodness seems pretty self-evident, as any loyal Trekker knows how incredibly hilarious the science fiction legend is, but for the uninitiated out there, here’s a giggle tip. If you like to laugh and dig smart humor, warp on over to starship Enterprise, Voyager or station Deep Space Nine. Be prepared to have your funny bone tickled – and much more.

Funny can be subjective. What’s funny to you may not be so hilarious to me – or anyone else for that laughing matter. A universal comedy springs from people who make us laugh effortlessly. We may laugh at them, but more often than not, we’re laughing with them. We laugh at their character traits. We celebrate them. We don’t mock them. Comic greats like Lucille Ball or Jackie Gleason, to Red Foxx, Roseanne Barr, and Bea Arthur. not only make audiences howl with laughter but get us to embrace characters they lovingly craft over a course of a long running television series.

Trekkers are a lucky lot when it comes to laughs. Be it the original Trek – featuring a ‘green blooded’ Vulcan sparring with an ‘old country doctor’ to the many ways a Ferengi bargained with a Changeling Constable, fans of Gene Roddenberry’s spaceship of the imagination boast an embarrassment of silly riches when it comes to comedy.

Note: Rather than construct an exhaustive list of EVERY funny moment or FUNNIEST Treks, I’ve merely assembled some of my favorites, keeping with overall comedy tales – not select scenes or memorable one liners. Comedy is subjective. Your giggle gem may not make it. Maybe next time!

“The Trouble with Tribbles” | Photo credit: CBS Home Entertainment

The Original Series – Funny Folk: Spock & McCoy – Scotty & Chekov

A piece of the action.

Gangster Kirk? Hitman Spock? The Enterprise organizes their own crime mob and takes a colorful walk on the wild side of 1920’s Earth crime history when they assume the gun toting culture of an alien race emulating the colorful crime bosses and culture of 20th Century America. In the end, all they really want is… a piece of the action!

Trouble With Tribbles

Often lauded as the funniest or cutest episode in any Star Trek incarnation, this cautionary tale of pet/animal control gone wild remains a universal fan favorite. Tribbles are basically purring dust bunnies who put the pro in procreation since the little furry bastards are born pregnant.

Roguish Harry Mudd was introduced in an earlier episode – “Mudd’s Women” – but this one really brings on the funny. Mudd’s planet of androids becomes so outlandish, his own wife, nag expert Stella, rampages around as one of the marauding cyber folk. Roger C. Carmel may have been the funniest guest ever to grace Trek and was nearly rewarded with his own spin-off show back in the day. Sadly, it never launched.

The Way To Eden

Often derided, and more often joyously mocked, this tale of hippies gone wild remains weird, other worldly, but always funny. There are so many comedic scenes to choose from, but the sick bay moment where the hippy wails, ‘Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy, I got a clean bill of health from Dr. McCoy!’ remains a rib tickling classic. Bones, heal thyself with laughter!

“A Fistful of Datas” | Photo credit: CBS Home Entetainment

Next Generation – Funny Folk: Data & Geordi – Guinan & Barclay

Betazoids can be seriously horny aliens. Can Mrs. Lwaxana Troi snag a proper mate? She’s on the heated prowl and oh so determined. Captain Picard’s determined to avoid her, and the whole darn romp becomes a complete laugh riot.

Menage A Troi

Take the scheming Ferengi, throw in the beautiful Deanna Troi and Enterprise D’s Counselor’s Mom, Lwaxana, and you get real laughs aplenty. Picard’s love proclamation to Mrs. Troi is a prime moment. Yet another dependable Troi Mom chuckle fest.

Hollow Pursuits

Lt. Reg Barclay loves his Holodeck time. Oh, it’s such fun. It’s a real chance for him to relax. It’s also private time for him to romance his unsuspecting crew mates – in holographic form anyway. So. What’s the problem then? You gotta lock the door! Poor ole Broccoli, he’s the Engineer without the basic engineering smarts for privacy.

Sherwood Forest awaits! The rollicking romantic adventures of Robin Hood and Maid Marion come to vibrant life when the cosmic pain in the ass Q pops into our realm and plays once again with his favorite playmate, Picard. Laughs abound abundantly, but the funniest line comes from the terminally irritable Klingon, Worf: “I protest! I am not a merry man!”

When a god loses his godliness, what to do? Where does he go? Why he chooses to spend the rest of his fading mortal coil with the very human beings he’s tormented for years, of course! Seems that Q’s choice of being plopped helpless on Picard’s bulkhead is a good one – considering all the other races he’s tortured wish him deader than dead. Red Alert!

A Fistful Of Datas

Data in drag? Actually, it’s actor Brent Spiner playing a holographic android of himself playing an old western bar floozy dressed to the tacky nines. Spiner’s drag turn is worth the price of admission in this Deadwood flavored romp. Howdy, partner! Sit a spell, drink your drink and draw! Maybe Spiner should guest on RuPaul’s Drag Race?

If you could live your life over again from childhood, would you? Think it’d be loads of fun? Picard, Guinan, Keiko O’Brien and Ensign Ro are the starship adults who get that free spirited second chance childhood. Hey, maybe if Discovery doesn’t work out, they could do Star Trek: Little Rascals! I’d buy that for a dollar!

“Our Man Bashir” | Photo credit: CBS Home Entetainment

Deep Space Nine – Funny Folk: Odo & Quark, Bashir & O’Brien & Morn

House of quark.

Can Quark effectively deal with Klingon culture’s obsession with honor and a fiery Klingon woman determined to get the upper hand? Our adorable Ferengi deal maker’s no battlefield warrior, but he’s definitely got grit. Somehow, someway he’s got to find a way to fight this one out – or die trying. Remember: “When Morn leaves, it’s all over.”

Profit and Lace

A Some Like It Hot vibe sees Quark in an ultimate drag race after he gets sex reassignment surgery from Dr. Bashir. Though overall comedic, the tale employs sci-fi quickie surgery to teach Quark a lesson. He ultimately realizes how wrong his recent sexual harassment of a waitress was and rewards her for the embarrassment and the pain he caused her.

Our Man Bashir

Bashir, Julian Bashir. Romulan Ale. Shaken, not stirred. He’s the super secret medical man with a plan – or, er, something. This Bond spoof comes complete with a thrilling sense of adventure and more than a healthy dose of a sense of humor. Austin Powers, meet Dr. Bashir.

Trials & Tribbleation

Once again those troublesome Tribbles roll in like colorful tumbleweeds to tickle our collective funny bone. This tale isn’t only a howl, but a time tripping retread of The Original Series , as Captain Sisko and company journey back to Captain Kirk’s era for yet more trouble dealing with those adorable dust bunnies.

“Q2” | Photo credit: CBS Home Entetainment

Voyager – Funny People: Tuvok & Neelix, Seven Of Nine & Doc & Seska

Bride of chaotica.

Flash Gordon isn’t simply a quaint, ancient pop culture hobby for heroic Ensign Paris. It’s an obsession. After he and pal Harry Kim dress up as cosmic swashbucklers in the vein of 20th-century pulp fiction space cowboys, the phaser energy hits the fan. Captain Proton lives! Enjoy the glorious black and white holodeck environment – if you dare!

False Profits

Ferengi warps their profit loving butts to the Delta Quadrant. When Captain Janeway’s Voyager meets up with them, they must handle two con men who are posing as powerful gods. Aliens posing as gods using native mythology. Huh. Yeah. Sounds familiar…. Has anyone seen Ra? Dial that StarGate!

Would you volunteer to babysit a godlike child? You’d undoubtedly charge more than a few bucks to watch such a terrible tyke. Captain Janeway gets little choice in the matter when Q comes calling and plops his precocious and super powered junior onto our favorite lost in space Starfleet vessel. Even stripped of his godly powers, Q2 remains a ‘problem child.’ Fun fact: Q actor John de Lancie’s real-life son, Keegan, plays Q2.

Body and Soul

The Borg Drone & The Doc – what sweet, silly music they make. When 7 of 9 downloads Doc’s holomatrix into her sizable Borg implants, Voyager’s physician gets a chance to be as ‘alive’ as he’ll probably ever be. This isn’t only a fun ride, but it’s an awesome showcase for actress Jeri Ryan’s impressive mimicry skills. Mmmmm cheesecake!

Doctor Phlox | Photo credit: CBS Home Entertainment

Apologies to those Enterprise fans for coming up nada here. Yes, it’s a bit of an empty space to be sure. I’ve found Phlox funny at times, and the Chief Medical Officer does show off a humorous bedside manner – but that’s about all for me and the cataloging of any real humor to be found on Enterprise . The finale, “These Are The Voyages” throws us a few rib tickling gems, but since it’s basically The Next Generation boosting and then unceremoniously burying Star Trek: Enterprise , I don’t know how fair it is to include since all truly fun moments are TNG related.

Rainn Wilson as Harry Mudd on Star Trek: Discovery | Photo credit: CBS All Access

Star Trek: Discovery

The hilariously iconic Harry Mudd from TOS will be revived and recycled for Discovery . Rainn Wilson will play the larger than life entrepreneur or always charismatic con man, depending on your point of view or how effectively Harry plays you. Roger C. Carmel is a hard act to follow. Those are certainly big comic shoes to fill. Wilson is definitely not the best fit physically for the beloved role, so we’ll see if his interpretation/impersonation fares any better. Let’s just hope Discovery brings us real honest to goodness laughs.

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Will is an Emmy Award nominated screenwriter, book author and content producer. He's written for magazines, the web and for several highly respected TV shows, most notably for the Star Trek franchise. Will penned episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine , and he was one of the few freelancers to work on episodes for both landmark Hollywood series, born of visionary Gene Roddenberry. He's pitched to Star Trek: Voyager , Deep Space Nine & for USA Network's show, Stephen King's The Dead Zone . His articles & celebrity interviews appear in national magazines, websites, newspapers and he's written extensively for publications such as: Yahoo! News, McCall's Quilter's Home, American Chronicle, Bayonne Style, OMG, Shine, Hudson Reporter, The Last Reel & Sci-Fi Pulse. His new book, Star Trek Sex: Analyzing The Most Sexually Charged Episodes Of The Original Series , is published by Bearmanor Media. You can follow Will on Twitter @willstape and @LaughTrek .

Adam E Fairchild

August 2, 2017 at 10:54 am

Funniest Enterprise Episode: “Unexpected.” Honorable mention to “Shuttlepod One” and “Two Days and Two Nights” which both have some funny moments with Trip and Reed.

May 27, 2021 at 3:48 pm

Yes. Unexpected had me cracking up, particularly with T’pol taking digs at Tucker when he found out he was pregnant.

August 22, 2019 at 8:31 pm

TNG S3 E21 Hollow Pursuits – it was a Barclay episode. Cracked me up XD

Cheesus Toast

Author Author beats all episodes on this list, hands down!

AlwaysPunchingRobots

Funniest DS9 episodes for me are Little Green Men, Magnificent Ferengi, House of Quark, Who Mourns for Morn & The Forsaken.

Bride of Chaotica might be the funniest Voyager episode.

Completely agree with Tribbles for TOS, a well as Fistful of Datas fot TNG.

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Screen Rant

The 10 funniest star trek episodes, ranked.

Star Trek may be known for its series storylines, but audiences are occasionally treated with hilarious episodes that become fan-favorites.

The  Star Trek   universe contains a wealth of episodes over its half-century of history. The crews of that universe's starships and space stations have seen and done almost everything. And that includes delving into their humorous sides.

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The  Star Trek  universe has made us laugh from time to time. Though producers and writers needed to adhere to certain standards developed over the decades, they came up with several humorous moments. As proof, here's a ranked list of the 10 funniest episodes across all  Star Trek  programs.

TNG: Menage a Troi

When you have both Laxwana Troi and the Ferengi involved in an episode it's bound to be funny. Such is the case with the season three  TNG   episode  Menage a Troi . And a good thing it was humorous, because Picard was kidnapped by the Borg two episodes later.

While on vacation, Laxwana Troi is captured by the Ferengi. It takes a boisterous proclamation of love by Captain Picard to have her returned to the  Enterprise . Not only was the episode a giggle-fest but it also marked Wesley Crusher's field promotion to Ensign.

Voyager: Q2

Q had a different relationship with  Voyager's  Captain Janeway than he did with Picard. For the latter, Q was similar to his conscience. On the other hand, he had a fondness for Janeway.

So much so that Q asked her to watch his powered-down son while he took care of some things across the galaxy. Of course, hilarity and disaster followed. Nevertheless, the story had a happy ending for all involved.

TOS: I, Mudd

Though Rainn Wilson does a fine job in his portrayal of Harcourt Fenton Mudd, actor Roger Carmel is the role model. While he only appeared in two original series episodes, Mudd established himself as Kirk's roguish nemesis.

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Of the two episodes, "I, Mudd" is more humorous than season one's "Mudd's Women." It's the back and forth between Harcourt and Kirk that make it memorable. Despite what his critics say, William Shatner has comedic chops.

DS9: Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang

This season seven episode of  Deep Space Nine  was the last one before the show began to close out the Dominion War. Not only is it funny, but it has shades of the original  Ocean's Eleven   built-in. Although, we're not sure if Chief O'Brien would have been strip-searched in the 1960s.

"Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang" takes place mostly in the holosuite program for Vic Fontaine's Las Vegas lounge. When a jack-in-a-box subroutine changes the program, it's up to Vic and the DS9 crew to take it back from members of a Philly mob. There are plenty of chuckles to be had, especially when the scheme goes down.

From this fourth season episode of  The Next Generation  comes one of Worf's most famous quotes. Transported to Sherwood Forest by Q and adorned in the costume of Will Scarlett, one of Robin Hood's Merry Men,  Worf exclaims, "I am not a merry man."

"Qpid" has one of the series lightest touches, to the point it feels like an old Errol Flynn film. While Picard plays Robin Hood, the rest of his Merry Men try to get used to their temporary roles. One of the funniest parts is during the fight between Robin's friends and Nottingham's guards. Both Doctor Crusher and Counselor Troi knock two of the bad guys out by bashing large vases over their heads.

Voyager: Bride of Chaotica!

Many humorous episodes of  TNG, DS9, and  Voyager took place on the holodeck/suite. The last show mention featured one of the best uses of the technology thanks to Tom Paris. Lover of ancient pop culture, He and Harry Kim put together a program that simulated space opera shorts like  Flash Gordon. 

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In this case, it was the  Adventures of Captain Proton. Featuring scenes in black-and-white, Proton (Paris) and Harry try to defeat villains who are photonic beings interested in first contact. There are numerous references to the old movie serials and how they handled science fiction at the time.

DS9: Our Man Bashir

Here's another instance where a holodeck program features an entertaining story. This time, the focus is on Doctor Bashir and Garak as they work their way through a 60s spy setup. However, there's a complication.

Seems the transporter patterns of the DS9's admin staff are caught in the program. As a result, they take on forms of some of the characters. Not only is the dynamic between Bashir and Garak a joy to watch but also how the rest of the cast plays their new roles.

TOS: A Piece of the Action

The second season of the original  Star Trek  contained the three humorous episodes listed here. As a result, characters other than Kirk were given a chance to display their comedic chops. In "A Piece of the Action," both Kirk and Spock get to display their talents and New York accents.

A visit to the home planet of the Iotians reveals they have adopted the ways of 1920s mobs. Everyone carries a gun and tries to wipe each other out. Kirk needs to get the mob families all together to change their status quo. Besides their accents, the funniest part of the episode is when Kirk tries to drive an old stick-shift automobile.

DS9: Trials and Tribble-ations

The two funniest  Star Trek  episodes are based on those furry creatures that like to mate. The fact the  DS9  episode incorporated the crew into the original "Trouble with Tribbles" made it even better.

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As part of  Star Trek's  30th anniversary, the episode has the  Defiant  travel back in time to Kirk's era. Here, the crew needs to infiltrate the first  Enterprise  and Space Station K7 to ensure the good captain doesn't die from an explosive tribble planet by a Klingon operative. The episode must be watched several times to catch all the humorous moments.

TOS: The Trouble With Tribbles

There are many chuckle-worthy moments in this episode. For example, the bar fight and Scotty's reason why it started. Tribbles in Kirk's chicken salad is another. Of course, the most memorable moment is when Kirk is showered with engorged tribbles.

There are so many episodes of the original  Star Trek  that shine. However, "Trouble With Tribbles" is remembered the most because it gave viewers a sense of joy these actors had with each other and the environment.

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10 Funniest Star Trek Episodes

Be it Klingons getting frisky or the stakes getting high, Star Trek knows how to bring the fun.

Star Trek can sometimes be a serious affair, showing the issues that modern society faces through the lens of Science Fiction. The Original Series was an attempt to show morality plays as depicted in the future, touching on racism, biggotry, greed and inequality. Star Trek, even when written in a way accessible for all ages, was aimed for a mature audience.

And then, as little rewards for the often serious tone, there are many fine examples of comedy dropped in along the way. Much like any deep dive, one needs to come up for air every so often. In the shows that lean toward the darker, some of the lightest moments exist. In a franchise that has spanned more than fifty years, there are many bright and uplifting episodes where the show not only comes up for air but forces laughing gas down your throat while they're at it.

Not every joke lands and not every situation stands out as funny all these years later (oh Original Series, what a product of your time that you were) but the intent to entertain and to bring an escape has always been there. Even more recent entries like Discovery and Picard have delivered on the laughs and they're both about as serious as the show has become.

But these examples here delve into the chuckles as much as Trek has ever seen, sometimes repeating the gags because they just work so well.

10. Quark The Suave - Looking For Par'Mach In All The Wrong Places

There's a lot to love in this fifth season entry from Deep Space Nine. Worf is still the brooding badass that was introduced a season earlier and the seeds of his relationship with Dax have been sown. However, when Grilka, the fearsome leader of her own house, arrives on the station Worf is bewitched by her enchanting presence. He resolves to find out as much as he can about her, already infatuated with this woman. He follows her and...finds out she's Quark's wife.

Yes, this is the episode where Quark bests Worf in the matter of Klingon love and its spectacular. Having already won her heart in a previous episode, Quark is tasked with providing her with a divorce, with all of the romance that goes along with that.

And through several jolly old occurances, he finds himself fighting for the right to impress her. Naturally, were it a normal week, he'd be a dead man. So Worf, heartsick, steps in to help - and Dax, equally heartsick, agrees to help, ignoring her own feelings for Worf.

It's a classic Star Trek rom-com, with Klingons, Trill and Ferengi to beat the band. The episode doesn't feed into the larger plot as a whole - it is simply an upbeat and cheerful bottle episode, one of a surprising number of them on Deep Space Nine.

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick

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The 10 Best Classic Star Trek Episodes

We boldly go... and pick our favorites from the original series..

It's never too late to watch episodes of the original Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry's iconic 1960s series gave us a number of incredibly memorable characters and performances, led by William Shatner as Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelley as Bones, while also inadvertently launching what would become one of the biggest franchises in history.

Of course, Star Trek has been and ever shall be about much more than just its beloved characters. There's also its thematic exploration of topical issues and problems facing humankind in the here and now, its application of real scientific theories extrapolated into very cool (and possible) future tech like warp drive, transporters, and more, and of course its optimistic view of humanity's future that reassures us that, yes, it's all gonna work out.

The show first aired on September 8, 1966 with the episode "The Man Trap," and so we're celebrating that anniversary with this list. There was initially some debate among IGN's editors about which episode belonged where -- and it took a few Kirk-style double-fist punches to settle those differences -- but we can now present to you our picks for the top 10 Star Trek: The Original Series episodes ever.

10. Arena (Season 1)

It's 50 years later, and Kirk fighting a guy in a green rubber suit is still awesome. "Arena," while not exactly reinventing the wheel when it comes to one-hour drama, does create a Trek standard that would find itself adapted into every other Trek series: Human and alien get stranded on insert deadly environment here , enemies become friends, and the universe is better for it.

Previously, we had only seen Kirk save the day sitting comfortable in his chair, or with a photon torpedo or six handy. "Arena" puts Kirk in a spot where he has to earn his survival by putting his instincts to the test, using only his wits and what little his environment provides. Kirk, in combat with the Gorn, proves that he is immune to defeat, but not to compassion. He spares the Gorn's life, satisfying the plan of the cosmic entity that pit the two against each other in the first place. Again, it's not Shakespeare, but leave it to Trek to get significant mileage out of men, even those behind the wheel of a starship, being reminded that they don't have the right to play God.

9. Amok Time (Season 2)

Season 2 of Star Trek kicked off with our first look at Spock’s home planet, Vulcan. Leonard Nimoy’s character had been the breakout character of the show the previous year, and there was a real hunger among fans for more info on The Logical One and his mysterious people.

Not only does “Amok Time” bring us to Vulcan, but it also introduced the concept of pon farr -- the Vulcan mating ritual, which overwhelms Spock and drives him to madness. (Hey, we can relate.) Kirk has no choice but to disobey orders, divert course, and get his first officer back to his planet before the fever kills him. There, we meet Spock’s betrothed, the beautiful and exotic T’Pring (Arlene Martel). But T’Pring insists that Spock fight for her affections, and the unlucky combatant she chooses to face her would-be husband is Kirk! Oh, and to quote the ancient Vulcan priestess overseeing the whole affair, “This combat is to the death.”

The episode offers an exciting glimpse of Vulcan that also allows for Nimoy to take Spock to some strange new acting worlds (for a character so in control of his emotions, he sure did emote a lot on this show). Martel and the other Vulcan guest stars bring a believability to the race that would elude many later actors to play our pointy-eared cousins (see many a TNG episode), but best of all is the strengthening of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic that takes place in “Amok Time.” When Spock requests that his “closest friends” accompany him to the planet surface for the ritual, even Bones has to let down his guard for a minute. His reply is simple and yet says so much about this trio: “I shall be honored, sir.”

8. The Naked Time (Season 1)

As the fourth episode aired, "The Naked Time" served as a primer for audiences to what made the still-new characters onboard the Enterprise tick. That dramatic throughline, some great acting, and a dynamic and tense plot all made for a memorable episode that still packs a wallop today.

When the Enterprise finds a team of dead scientists on the planet Psi 2000, Kirk's crew soon becomes contaminated with the same infection that killed that unlucky group. Those affected act strangely -- almost as if they're drunk -- and many of them find their inner-selves revealed in acts of uninhibited emotion: Spock's half-breed identity crisis, Sulu's secret swashbuckler, Kirk's love of his ship over all else, and so on. Meanwhile, while McCoy toils to find a vaccine for the intoxication virus, the Enterprise becomes locked in a death-spiral heading for the planet's surface. Can the drunken crew of the Enterprise save themselves in time? Of course they can… and they invent time travel while doing it!

7. The Enemy Within (Season 1)

"The Enemy Within" features a lot of firsts for Star Trek. First transporter malfunction. First duplicate Kirk. First unbridled, sweaty, mascara-laden, over-acting Shatner moment. It's a classic!

During a geological expedition on Alpha 177, the Enterprise's transporter ceases to function correctly after a clumsy technician beams up with some weird magnetic dust on his uniform. Unfortunately -- or rather, fortunately for the viewer -- Kirk also beams up shortly thereafter… twice! He's been split in two by the accident: a "good" Kirk who's a pokey, indecisive mess, and an "evil" Kirk who acts like a raving lunatic, running around the ship drinking Saurian brandy and trying to force himself on Yeoman Rand. (We kid you not.) The situation is aggravated by the fact that Sulu and a bunch of red-shirts are stranded on the freezing planet with no way to get back (no shuttlecrafts yet, eh?). Also, a poorly made-up alien dog is split in two as well. And dies! A thousand Trekkies weep.

The episode is amazing for the scenery chewing that Shatner pulls off, as well as the basic concept it posits that everyone has a good and dark side. Many subsequent Trek episodes and sci-fi series would rip off "The Enemy Within," but rarely has it been topped.

2. Where No Man Has Gone Before (Season 1)

Trek's second pilot is the stuff of perfect sci-fi: Compelling action mixed with heady, effective, and at times emotional drama. It finds a perfect balance between delivering on Gene Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the Stars" premise and the ethically challenging landscape of the morality play.

With the first (rejected) pilot's Captain Chris Pike and company replaced by Kirk and Spock, the Enterprise's new…ish mission gets off to a quick and violent start: The ship encounters an unknown energy barrier at the galaxy's rim that turns Gary Mitchell, Kirk's best friend and helmsman, into a mortal enemy. Mitchell, not a warm and friendly guy to begin with, develops ESP powers, to the point where he goes from levitating cups to reading the thoughts of the entire crew. As Mitchell becomes an increasing threat to Enterprise, Spock helps Kirk make the tough decision – exile his friend to a barren planet, and kill him, if necessary, to save the ship.

The episode introduces the Trek staple of Kirk and Spock's relationship; the emotionally restrained Vulcan playing conscience to Kirk's passionate cowboy diplomacy. It also introduces the rule of thumb that whenever Kirk gets into a fist fight, his tunic must be torn. For years, we thought all close quarters combat (CQC) wasn't CQC unless we showed off some Shatner chest, too, but we digress. The Captain's first duty is to his crew, and it often comes with the price being that of your dearest blood. "Gone Before" introduces that consequence of being the Enterprise captain, one which Kirk would suffer until the end of his career. This pilot gave birth to two icons in the making and a series that would become what it is today. Only the best science fiction can pull that off.

5. The Trouble With Tribbles (Season 2)

Attention must be paid to an episode DS9 sent its characters to revisit and pay homage to. "The Trouble with Tribbles" could have crashed and burn -- fuzzy, purring, Wookiee-pellet looking things on a space station full of Klingons sounds like a recipe for disaster. Instead, the episode earned a place as a permanent fan-favorite, and established Trek's unique brand of light comedy that would be later explored in the likes of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

While a bogus distress call sends the Enterprise to protect a space station's hold of quadrotriticale , a special grain worth quite a lot to the Klingons, Kirk reluctantly keeps the peace as the "born pregnant" tribbles multiply and eat everything in their sights, including the grain. An ol' fashioned bar room brawl breaks out, a human saboteur is revealed to be a Klingon in disguise and the tribbles save the day. It's amazing how these events, under the microscope, might make a Trekkie scratch his head, wondering how the heck this ever worked out well. But watching the episode again, and again, indicates why this is Classic Trek.

4. Space Seed (Season 1)

If not for this gripping first season episode there would never have been Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, widely considered the best Trek film to date. The Enterprise comes across the derelict vessel Botany Bay adrift in space, and Kirk awakens its crew from suspended animation in order to prevent their deaths. Bad idea. It turns out they are genetically-enhanced supermen from the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s (remember them?) led by Khan Noonien Singh (the late, great Ricardo Montalban).

Boasting a bigger ego and appetite for women and military glory than his rescuer Captain Kirk, as well as a snazzier wardrobe, Khan has designs on capturing both the Enterprise and the heart of artsy redhead Lt. Marla McGivers (Madlyn Rhue). The episode features a great mano a mano brawl between Kirk and Khan, something the ship-bound Wrath of Khan didn't, as well as plenty of clever verbal exchanges between the two foes. Kirk's climactic decision to settle Khan, McGivers and his men on Ceti Alpha V would decades later cost his best friend Spock his life.

3. Mirror, Mirror (Season 2)

Spock in a goatee! The Mirror Universe, a place of alternate realities and a lot of guys wearing sashes, was a relatively new concept when TOS explored it during its second season. Now, the Mirror Universe is a sci-fi staple traded and used across many mediums, with Trek having gone to the well a few more times too.

Arguably one of the most memorable episodes of Trek that even non die-hards can single out, "Mirror" finds Kirk and company the victims of an ion storm and sent to an alternate reality where the Federation's tree-huggers have been replaced by the Imperial Empire's warmongers. Kirk, Uhura, Bones and Scotty assume the roles of their doppelgangers, while their evil counterparts occupy the brig back in the regular universe until Spock can figure out how to remedy the situation. The I.S.S. Enterprise is a warship, home to a very Ming-looking Spock who is quick to figure out that a few things don't quite gel on his ship. When Mirror Spock's Kirk disappeared, that captain was this close to being on the receiving end of a mutiny. In the end, Mirror Spock helps Kirk restore the balance, while Kirk shows Mirror Spock that just because he is a soldier doesn't mean he has lost his logical, ethical core.

What it would be like to find yourself in an alternate reality paved in blood and war is something Trek would revisit and expand upon on both DS9 and Enterprise. But "Mirror, Mirror" did it first, and maybe best.

2. Balance of Terror (Season 1)

This TOS episode established Trek's universal "Run Silent, Run Deep" approach to space combat. It's also our first encounter with the Romulans, and it provided Captain Kirk with one of his earliest opportunities to show his crew that he doesn't like to lose. The episode puts Kirk front and center in a game of cat and mouse on the border of the Romulan Neutral Zone, where the Enterprise -- originally sent to investigate why the outposts there have gone silent -- finds a Bird of Prey and a Romulan commander ready to remind the galaxy why it never should have turned its back on the Empire.

"Terror" builds up to a big reveal of the Romulan Commander, but it is somewhat anti-climactic with the Romulan looking like a more pissed-off Vulcan. (Mark Lenard, who appears as the Romulan here, would also play Spock's father throughout the series and movies.) But the reveal did mark the moment in Trek canon when we learned that Vulcans and Romulans are distant cousins. While the battle scenes are tense and aplenty, the episode stands out for how it begins and ends, with a wedding that eventually leaves the newlywed a widow during the attack. This loss hangs over Kirk's head and his bittersweet victory, and helps make this episode one of the best Trek has ever produced.

1. The City on the Edge of Forever (Season 1)

This beloved first season episode, originally written by Harlan Ellison, brought Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock to Depression-era New York where they must locate and prevent a drug-addled Dr. McCoy from changing the course of history. The focal point of this mission is Edith Keeler (Joan Collins), a social worker at an inner city mission whose pacifist ideals and moving speeches will one day have such an effect on the nation that America's entry into World War II will be delayed ... a fateful change that allows the Nazis to win the war and conquer the world. McCoy had somehow prevented Edith from dying in a traffic accident as she was meant to, so Kirk is posed with the horrible decision to allow her to perish when the opportunity presents itself.

Unfortunately, Kirk being Kirk, he falls in love with Edith. Can he still go through with it in order to ensure that, someday, the Nazis will be defeated? This beautiful story poignantly establishes the maxim later explored in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan : the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. Kirk's reaction before beaming up at the end of the episode is one of William Shatner's most moving moments in all of Trek .

Looking for more classics? Take a look at our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time for a trip down memory lane.

Note: This article was originally published in 2016 and updated in 2022 to fix formatting.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Just Pulled Off The Greatest Comedy Episode Of Trek Ever Made

This post contains spoilers for the latest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds."

The new episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" could have been a disaster. The long-running franchise has spent decades exploring the many facets of Spock's half-human, half-Vulcan identity, but across multiple TV shows and films, "Star Trek" has never actually dared to tinker with the nature of the character's identity — until now. The latest episode of the Paramount+ prequel series boldly goes somewhere the saga never has before, imagining what the most beloved character from one of the world's most beloved sci-fi franchises would look like if he suddenly became human for a day.

The result of this thought experiment is "Charades," which turns out to be not just the funniest episode of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" to date, but also one of the funniest "Trek" episodes ever. It's no secret that Trek has a robust shipper fan base, and there have been more than a few fanfiction works that imagine an alternate universe in which Spock is suddenly subject to all the rash and ridiculous desires of humankind. Those works typically skew angsty or passionate, and there's a little bit of that in "Charades" too, but mostly, the episode works thanks to its pitch-perfect humor and Ethan Peck's totally committed performance.

Who knew Ethan Peck was a fantastic comedic actor?

If you've ever wondered what Spock might be like without his ultra-logical Vulcan side to keep him in check, the answer, according to "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds," is simple: he'd basically be a teenager. When a customer service rep-like entity accidentally removes Spock's Vulcan DNA, the human version of the character is as polite, articulate, and geeky as ever, but he's also prone to bouts of extreme emotion and somewhat nonexistent impulse control. Anyone who has undergone a major hormonal change will recognize the references to crying jags, emotional outbursts, and insatiable cravings. That last bit might not seem like it would relate back to Vulcan-ness, but the "Strange New Worlds" writers' room made sure to mention that Vulcans use scent suppressants to curb the nasty smell of humans, meaning Spock didn't smell bacon for the first time until after his accident

All of this could have come across as a cliche quasi-coming-of-age comedy, but it works because it turns out Peck is a tremendous comedic actor. He typically plays Spock with a mix of practical level-headedness and sweet innocence, and the temporary dismantling of all his emotional barriers only makes the latter trait more obvious. This Spock doesn't seem out of character — he just shows more of himself than he's ever been able to before. The snarky eyebrow arch perfected by Leonard Nimoy is replaced by Spock's goofily aggressive verbal assault on Sam Kirk. The deep sense of vulnerability and care that was once only distinguishable by measuring the pauses between Spock's words is now fully on display across his expressive face. In some ways, it's like Peck is playing a kid in a man's body, "Big"-style. Yet he's clearly also still the guy who cares a lot about coming across as smart and collected, which makes his sillier moments even more uproarious.

Human Spock lets subtlety fly out the window

"Charades" made me laugh out loud more than any episode of "Star Trek" ever has (though it's probably tied with a few unintentionally hilarious episodes of "The Original Series"). Peck gets the best bits, like when he chugs a drink after laughing too hard at a joke, then loudly says, "Sorry, I got so thirsty!" or when he feels a sudden pang of attraction for La'an (Christina Chong) and declares that he's embarrassed. When Spock ends up stuck in a tricky situation a la "The Birdcage" with T'Pring's severe parents, he tells them that "charades is very important" to humans, and when he tries to practice a Vulcan-like level of placidness, he ends up going through every facial expression imaginable. The kooky scenario gives everyone else a chance to get a little ridiculous, too, as the crew impersonates his monotone voice and Captain Pike (Anson Mount) tries to distract the Vulcan in-laws by plying them with his culinary creations.

In the end, "Charades" is a lot more than just a classic comedy episode of Trek. The episode touches on the complicated experiences of growing up bi-racial, passing as one culture but not another, and not feeling good enough to participate in your own cultural practices. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush) is right when she says Spock isn't his full self when he's human, and the show does well to return him to his eyebrow-raising, expressionless ways before the episode's end. Still, by letting a Starfleet officer who's known for his subtlety suddenly become the broadest and brashest version of himself, "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" managed to uncover a new layer to a character we thought we knew backward and forward. Lucky for us, that new layer is hilarious.

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30 Best Episodes Of Star Trek: Voyager According To IMDb

The third spin-off for the franchise, "Star Trek: Voyager" launched not long after "The Next Generation" left the airwaves. Set aboard the U.S.S. Voyager, its first mission saw Captain Kathryn Janeway in pursuit of a group of renegade Maquis. But when both ships were hurled into the far off Delta Quadrant by a mysterious alien entity, the two crews were forced to join together as they embarked on their long journey back to Earth.

Airing for seven seasons on UPN, "Star Trek: Voyager" may not have been the ratings hit that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was, but thanks to years of reruns and streaming, its popularity has grown in the years since its conclusion, with many episodes ranking among the franchise's most watched, according to StarTrek.com . During its time on Netflix, in fact, episodes centered on the Borg, and fan-favorite character Seven of Nine proved especially popular — so much so that Paramount+ made sure to include both in the revival series "Star Trek: Picard."

But which "Voyager" episodes rank the best among its entire 172-episode run? According to IMDb, the 30 we've collected here are the ones that top the charts.

30. Scientific Method (Season 4, Episode 7)

Janeway is pushed to the brink and Seven is left to save the day in the Season 4 episode  "Scientific Method." As the episode begins, the newest addition to the Voyager crew — ex-Borg Seven of Nine — is still learning to adjust to life aboard a Federation starship, unused to the hierarchy of command and the little social niceties of life in a human social structure. 

But while Voyager explores an unusual binary pulsar, a race of cloaked aliens have infiltrated the ship without anyone even realizing it. These aliens aren't looking to conquer however, and instead have been secretly experimenting on members of the crew — including the captain — as a gruesome form of medical testing without their knowledge. With only The Doctor and Seven of Nine able to detect them, it's up to a hologram and an uncertain former Borg to expose the alien threat and save the ship. 

29. Worst Case Scenario (Season 3, Episode 25)

In  "Worst Case Scenario"  B'Ellana discovers an apparent holo-novel that reanacts a disturbing takeover of the ship by its Maquis crewmembers, led by first officer Chakotay. More intrigued than disturbed, she shares it with Paris, then Kim, and before long the narrative becomes the center of ship-wide gossip as officers rush to play the interactive program for themselves. But it's soon revealed that the story was crafted by Tuvok as a training exercise and was abandoned when the Maquis became valued members of the crew.

Sent back in to finish the story for their own amusement, Paris and Tuvok discover that the program was co-opted by former Maquis crew member Seska and turned into a deadly form of payback. Suddenly the pair find themselves in a cat-and-mouse game with Seska's elaborate scenario that's been designed to torture them, while Janeway attempts to help them outside the confines of the holodeck. Racing against time, they'll have to play by Seska's rules if they want to stay alive.

28. Hope And Fear (Season 4, Episode 26)

In the fourth season finale  "Hope And Fear,"  Seven of Nine is forced to confront her humanity when it looks like Voyager has found a way home. It starts with the arrival of a man named Arturis who helps them finally repair and descramble the damaged message they received from Starfleet in "Hunters." In the message, Admiral Hayes claims they've sent an experimental new starship out to meet them just light years away, with a new slipstream engine capable of getting them home in a matter of months.

As Seven of Nine weighs staying behind — unsure if she'll fit in back on Earth — the crew discovers that the ship, the U.S.S. Dauntless , may not be what it appears. Now, the captain must balance her desire to get her crew back to Earth with her feeling that their ticket home may be a little too convenient.

27. Life Line (Season 6, Episode 24)

We're seeing double in  "Life Line"  when The Doctor comes face-to-face with his creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. After his appearance in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Doctor Bashir, I Presume," the famed scientist is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Voyager selflessly sends their holographic Doctor back to Earth via the Hirogen communication array to make a house call. But meeting his proverbial father isn't the jubilant family reunion that he'd expected as Zimmerman wants nothing to do with his own creation.

As The Doctor works to push past his creator's stubborn streak, Reg Barclay calls on the services of Counselor Deanna Troi to help the two work through their issues. But a problem in The Doctor's matrix forces Zimmerman to step in to save him, and The Doctor finally learns the basis for his father's ill feelings. A memorable episode that featured two long time cast members from "The Next Generation," it was ultimately a tale of an estranged father and son struggling to find common ground.

26. One (Season 4, Episode 25)

In "One," Seven of Nine is attempting to learn social skills with the help of The Doctor — and struggling with it — when the ship encounters an unusual nebula too vast to go around. But the nebula is found to contain a kind of subnucleonic radiation that proves deadly to the crew, save Seven of Nine and The Doctor. The only solution appears to be to put the entire crew, including the captain, into stasis pods for the duration of the journey, while Seven and The Doctor guide the ship.

Left alone, Seven at first enjoys the solitude, but the isolation soon begins to wear on her. Just as she needs companionship the most, The Doctor's program goes offline, and Seven is left to fend for herself as her mind begins to slowly erode. As hallucinations start to confuse her, she'll have to make a fateful choice if she wants to keep the crew alive.

25. Someone To Watch Over Me (Season 5, Episode 21)

"Someone To Watch Over Me"  sees The Doctor once again trying to help Seven of Nine improve her social skills, this time teaching her the art of dating. When Paris finds out, he makes a wager with The Doctor on whether Seven will be able to successfully find a date for an upcoming diplomatic reception. But as The Doctor spends more time with Seven of Nine, he finds himself developing romantic feelings for her himself.

Ultimately The Doctor asks Seven to the event, and when it comes out that he had made a bet with Paris over her love life, things go predictably wrong. Meanwhile, Neelix is tasked with entertaining Tomin, a Kadi diplomat, and struggles to stop the conservative, monk-like visitor from dangerously overindulging in the ship's leisure facilities. A more light-hearted affair, the episode is another key step in the development of both Seven of Nine and The Doctor and their common goal to learn to become more human.

24. Deadlock (Season 2, Episode 21)

It's double trouble in Season 2's  "Deadlock"  after Voyager encounters subspace turbulence that seems to be the cause of problems throughout the ship, as the warp core is rapidly being drained. But when B'Ellanna uses a series of proton bursts to restart the anti-matter reaction, it makes things worse, and Ensign Wildman's impending childbirth in sickbay is endangered. After a catastrophic hull break kills Ensign Kim, B'Ellana discovers that the subspace field they passed through has actually created a quantum duplicate of the ship and its crew, and there are now two U.S.S. Voyagers, slightly out of phase but sharing the same anti-matter reserves. 

Unfortunately, just as they think they have figured a way out of the situation they come under attack from the organ-stealing Vidiians. Thanks to the discovery of a small rift that allows passage between the two Voyagers, the duplicate crews find a new way to work together to fend off the alien attack while severing the link between their two ships. But for one of them to survive, the other may have to make the ultimate sacrifice. 

23. Equinox, Part II (Season 6, Episode 1)

It's an all-out war with Captain Ransom in the sixth season premiere,  "Equinox, Part II."  After the renegade Starfleet commander reprograms The Doctor and takes Seven of Nine hostage, he sets off to parts unknown to continue his torture of the alien creatures he needs to power his ship. Back on Voyager, Janeway is determined to get back her crewmen — and to do it she threatens to cross the line between justice and revenge. 

With members of the Equinox left aboard the ship, the captain will do whatever it takes to get them to tell her Ransom's plans. While Ransom's EMH secretly attempts to sabotage Voyager, an unexpected ally surfaces and could be key to stopping the Equinox. But as Janeway's methods continue to become more vicious, first officer Chakotay becomes increasingly uneasy, leading to a confrontation that could change the nature of their relationship forever. 

22. Eye Of The Needle (Season 1, Episode 7)

Early in "Star Trek: Voyager" the crew was still hopeful of finding a shortcut back to Earth, and they almost find one in the first season installment,  "Eye of the Needle."  Encountering a micro wormhole, they realize they can't get the ship through, but may be able to transmit a message, and potentially use their transporters to send the crew back to the Alpha Quadrant. Unfortunately, the ship they find on the other side of the galactic gateway isn't a friendly Federation starship but a secretive Romulan cargo ship.

Attempting to convince the Romulan captain that they aren't some kind of Starfleet deception is the first hurdle they encounter, as the adversaries have little reason to trust one another. But once they finally earn the captain's confidence they discover that the wormhole isn't all that it seems to be. With hopes diminishing, they realize that getting home may be more complicated than activating their transporters.

21. Future's End (Season 3, Episode 8)

Season 3's  "Future's End"  is another classic "Star Trek" time travel adventure that sees the crew of the starship Voyager hurled back in time to the then-present day of 1996. It all happens when the Timeship Aeon emerges from the 29th century and its captain, a man called Braxton, claims that Voyager is responsible for a disaster in his time that will annihilate Earth's solar system. His attempts to destroy Voyager fail, and the two ships are instead sent through a spatial rift, nearly 400 years into the past. 

Arriving in 1990s Los Angeles, Janeway is disturbed to discover that Braxton has been trapped there for 30 years already, and the technology aboard his ship has fallen into the hands of a Steve Jobs-like industrialist named Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) who is using it to amass his fortune. Realizing that it was future technology that was responsible for the '90s tech-boom, Janeway must find a way to retrieve Braxton's ship and get back to the 24th century, all while Starling hopes to collect Voyager's technology for himself.

20. Future's End: Part II (Season 3, Episode 9)

Still trapped in 1996,  "Future's End: Part 2" sees tech mogul Henry Starling finally getting Braxton's ship operational. Janeway realizes that it's Starling's use of the Aeon that will destroy the solar system, and must find a way to stop him. But Starling manages to steal The Doctor's program, and using 29th century tech taken from Braxton outfits him with an autonomous holo-emitter, allowing him the freedom to walk about unfettered for the first time.  

To get The Doctor back, Paris and Tuvok find a friend in a young astronomer named Rain Robinson (guest star Sarah Silverman), while Janeway makes contact with Captain Braxton himself, now a vagrant living in the city's underbelly. Chakotay and B'Elanna try to locate Braxton's ship, but become prisoner's of right-wing militants. To save Earth and return to the 24th century, Voyager's crew may have to risk exposing themselves to the people of the past.

19. Shattered (Season 7, Episode 10)

Another sci-fi time-bender, the Season 7 episode  "Shattered"  sees the ship pass through a temporal distortion field that fractures the ship into different time periods. Awakening in sickbay more than four years in the past, Chakotay is given a newly developed chroniton serum by The Doctor that allows him to pass through the various time shifts aboard the ship. To bring Voyager back into temporal sync he'll need to spread the serum throughout the ship's own circuitry, but he can't do it alone.

Traveling to the bridge, he finds a version of Captain Janeway from before they met, and he must somehow gain her trust to recruit her to execute his plan. But it's easier said than done with they discover the villainous Seska and her Kazon allies are in control of engineering, during the events of the Season 2 episode "Basics." A nostalgic look back at Voyager's seven-season run, "Shattered" sees the return of several former heroes and villains from past episodes.

18. Death Wish (Season 2, Episode 18)

The immortal all-powerful trickster Q finds a new ship to annoy in the Season 3 episode  "Death Wish."  Coming upon a rogue comet, Voyager discovers that it's actually home to a member of the Q Continuum, a being who has grown bored with his endless life and wishes to commit suicide. Dubbed "Quinn," he seeks asylum aboard Voyager when Q arrives to put him back in his cosmic prison cell. Though Janeway doesn't want to get involved in their god-like squabbles, she feels ethically obligated to consider Quinn's request, and grants them a hearing aboard the ship.

While Q summons the likes of Commander Riker, Isaac Newton, and a hippie from Woodstock to give statements, Tuvok defends Q's right to not exist, should he so choose. Disturbed by the fact that granting asylum would mean Quinn's suicide, Janeway attempts to convince Quinn that life is worth living. Undergoing his own crisis of faith, Q is forced to acknowledge the problems his people face, and makes a decision that will change the Q Continuum forever.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

17. Latent Image (Season 5, Episode 11)

  "Latent Image"  begins with The Doctor finding evidence of a surgical procedure on Ensign Kim that seems to have no explanation. What starts out as an investigation into a minor mystery leads to the disturbing realization that it was he who performed the surgery, but he has no recollection of it. Soon he learns that someone has been tampering with his program, erasing his memory — and perhaps the memories of the entire crew. But with the help of Seven of Nine, he discovers that the problem is even bigger than he feared, and everyone on the ship may be lying to him.

An episode that explores the problems that come with the holographic Doctor's existence as a growing sentient being, the story shows the crew slowly discovering that he has become more than just a program. It's also an intriguing allegory for how society often treats mental illness, and gives actor Robert Picardo some of his best work in his role as the ship's resident artificial surgeon.

16. Equinox (Season 5, Episode 25)

Janeway and Voyager are shocked to encounter another Federation vessel in the Delta Quadrant in  "Equinox,"  the dramatic fifth season finale. Commanded by the revered Captain Ransom (guest star John Savage), the U.S.S. Equinox is a science vessel that was catapulted to the region by the same entity that sent Voyager there. Ill-equipped for deep space assignments, Ransom and his crew have barely been able to survive on their slow journey home, and both crews seem buoyed and hopeful by the chance meeting. 

But the happy reunion is cut short when Seven of Nine uncovers evidence of corruption aboard Equinox, and the discovery that Ransom has been capturing and killing alien creatures and using their corpses to fuel their warp drive. Furious at the violation of Federation ideals, Janeway attempts to take control of his ship. But unwilling to go quietly, Ransom kidnaps Seven of Nine, and along with The Doctor's program, escapes aboard the Equinox. 

15. Pathfinder (Season 6, Episode 10)

In a surprising episode set almost entirely off of Voyager,  "Pathfinder"  follows "TNG" standout Reginald Barclay as he seeks help from his old friend, Counselor Troi. Now working at Starfleet HQ, he's part of the Pathfinder Project, which hopes to find a way to communicate with Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. Certain that he can use an itinerant pulsar to open a fissure that would allow two-way communication, he uses holodeck simulations to test his theories. But Barclay hit a wall when his superiors didn't believe in the potential of his ideas. 

After his boss, Commander Harkins, discovered that Barclay was living inside a simulation of Voyager and grows concerned for his mental stability, he was kicked off the project. Barclay approached Admiral Paris — who was running the project — about a second chance, but didn't get the response he was looking for. After speaking to Troi, Barclay breaks into the lab to put his plan into action before the pulsar moves out of range.

14. Dark Frontier (Season 5, Episode 15)

Janeway comes up with a bold scheme to attack a Borg ship in the double length episode  "Dark Frontier,"  that saw the Borg Queen's debut on the series. The plan is to steal a Borg ship's transwarp technology, capable of getting them back to Earth much faster than their conventional engines, and Janeway will stop at nothing to succeed. But the presence of Seven of Nine on the mission causes her some concern. 

Because Seven of Nine is still adjusting to being fully human Janeway fears the experience of returning to the Borg could be traumatic for her. Unbeknownst to Voyager, though, the Borg Queen has already learned of their daring plan, and finds a way of secretly communicating with Seven of Nine. The Queen offers her former drone a tempting deal: She will allow Voyager to succeed, effectively handing them an easy way home, in exchange for Seven of Nine rejoining the Borg. 

13. Endgame (Season 7, Episode 24)

The epic feature length series finale  "Endgame"  opens in the future on Earth, with an older Admiral Janeway unhappy with how history has turned out. She did get Voyager home, but it took more than 20 years and cost them the lives of several crewmen, including Seven of Nine. But when she finds a way to travel back in time to visit her past self, she devises a plan to change history and get Voyager home much sooner.

Visited by the older, more cynical Admiral Janeway, Voyager's Captain Janeway finds her future self's story hard to believe, but the plan she proposes makes sense: sneak into the heart of a Borg Uni-complex and use one of their transwarp hubs to travel back to Earth in an instant. The plan hits a snag, however, when the younger Janeway instead wants to use the opportunity to deal the Borg a crippling blow. Now the two Janeways find themselves at odds over the choice between defeating a mortal enemy or getting Voyager home.

12. Distant Origin (Season 3, Episode 23)

A story that explores the battle between religious dogma and scientific discovery,  "Distant Origin"  is told from the surprising perspective of an alien culture. We first meet a pair of Voth scientists named Gegen and Veer, who discover the remnants of one of Voyager's earlier ill-fated away missions. Studying the remains of a human crew member, they match its genetic structure to their own, providing evidence for a theory that their people originally evolved on Earth millions of years ago.

The two scientists show their evidence to their leaders, but are ostracized for challenging long-held doctrine that the Voth are a supreme form of life. Now facing persecution for their scientific discovery, they finally track Voyager itself, and capture Chakotay. With his help they hope to convince their people that they are actually descended from intelligent dinosaurs that roamed the Earth before the first ice age.

11. Drone (Season 5, Episode 2)

A transporter accident fuses Borg nano-probes from Seven of Nine with the 29th century technology of The Doctor's mobile emitter in the fifth season episode  "Drone."   Using the emitter, the nanoprobes steal genetic material from a passing crew member to create an advanced, 29th century Borg drone unlike anything that had been seen before. Unconnected from the Borg hive mind, the newly born Borg — who takes the name One — is a blank slate, and Janeway wants Seven of Nine to be his teacher and guide to humanity.

But when the Borg Collective discovers his existence they come to assimilate him, putting the ship, crew, and entire galaxy in jeopardy as they fear the Borg getting access to even more advanced technology. As the drone begins to question her about the Borg, Janeway fears he may want to join them, forcing Seven of Nine to finally answer the question of where she belongs.

10. Relativity (Season 5, Episode 23)

A mind-bending time travel adventure,  "Relativity"  opens aboard Voyager before its first mission when Captain Janeway is touring the ship in spacedock. But somehow Seven of Nine is present, and is secretly searching for a dangerous weapon at the direction of Captain Braxton. But before she can locate it she's discovered, and Braxton pulls her out of time, killing her. Flashing back to the present, a series of space-time fractures are causing temporal paradoxes all over Voyager when they discover a highly volatile temporal disrupter hidden in a bulkhead.

Just before it destroys the ship, Braxton's men abduct Seven again and send her back to find the disrupter in the past, figure out who planted it, and why. But if she's going to save the ship, Seven may have to do the one thing she's been ordered not to: tell Captain Janeway in the past about their future and recruit her to help complete Braxton's mission. 

9. Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (Season 6, Episode 4)

When The Doctor starts experimenting with a daydreaming program in  "Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"  things go wrong, and he finds himself unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. But when a low-ranking alien agent unwittingly taps into his daydreams, he believes The Doctor is actually the captain of the ship, and devises a plan to invade and conquer Voyager. 

After the bumbling alien spy realizes that he's gotten things wrong, he tries to call off the attack but it's too late to convince his superiors. As The Doctor's fantasy's are spinning out of control, the alien makes contact in the hopes of averting an embarrassing incident. To avoid confrontation, The Doctor must convince Janeway to let him take command. A more playful episode, it successfully mixes the kind of light-hearted comedy that works well with The Doctor, with the best adventure elements the show has to offer. 

8. Year Of Hell, Part II (Season 4, Episode 9)

"Year Of Hell, Part II"  picks up two months after the events of Part I. Voyager is in ruins and manned by a skeleton crew, while Janeway herself is in rough shape, barely able to survive repeated assaults from the Krenim. Tuvok has lost his sight, and requires Seven as his guide, while much of the ship itself is falling apart. Aboard Annorax's temporal warship, Chakotay and Paris are at odds, with Paris wanting to attempt escape while Chakotay wants to help find a way to use the ship's history-altering power to save Voyager.

Janeway meanwhile is attempting to assemble a loose alliance of friendly ships in the hopes of mounting an attack on Annorax. Seven of Nine successfully develops a new kind of temporal shield that they believe will be able to protect them against the Krenim's weapons. But if their plan doesn't work, it could mean Voyager never existed.

7. Living Witness (Season 4, Episode 23)

In the closest thing "Voyager" got to a Mirror Universe episode, the fifth season episode  "Living Witness"  saw The Doctor's program activated by an alien civilization some 700 years in the future. There, two neighboring species have been arguing over who started their centuries-old war, and believe that Voyager may have played a part in sparking it. Now with The Doctor active, one historian believes that he could hold the key to discovering just what happened.

Through the use of a holodeck of sorts we view the historical account of how they believed the crew of Voyager started the war. In the recreation, a tyrannical Captain Janeway brutally attacks the Kyrian people with biogenic weapons developed by The Doctor, wiping out entire populations. Now it's up to The Doctor to set the record straight, and if he can't convince them of what really happened, he may be put on trial for the crimes that Voyager is thought to have committed against their people. 

6. Message In A Bottle (Season 4, Episode 14)

Controversial comedian Andy Dick makes an unexpected appearance in the Season 4 episode  "Message In A Bottle"  that also marks Voyager's first communication with Starfleet. Upon discovering a Federation starship on the edges of hailing range of a deep space alien communication array, they fail to make contact, so instead send The Doctor's holographic program. Aboard the experimental U.S.S. Prometheus, The Doctor also finds that the ship has been taken over by Romulans, and its entire crew killed.

But with the help of that ship's own EMH, a dismissive and snarky Mark II, it's up to The Doctor to fight back and retake the ship. Once successful, he manages to get in touch with Starfleet and finally let them know that Voyager is alive and well in the Delta Quadrant. An offbeat episode that once again mixes humor and adventure, the highlight is the impeccable comedic chemistry between the two EMH's played by Robert Picardo and guest star Andy Dick.

5. Timeless (Season 5, Episode 6)

Opening on the stunning visual of the starship Voyager buried beneath the surface of a mysterious ice planet in  "Timeless,"  we meet a small group of explorers trying to excavate it. Breaking into the ship we learn that the space-bound archeologists are none other than Chakotay and Harry Kim, 15 years into the future. Finding The Doctor's mobile emitter, they've come back to the site of a disaster that destroyed the ship, with the hopes of changing history.

Flashing back to the "present" we see that Ensign Kim has spearheaded a project to retrofit Voyager with the same slipstream technology they were introduced to in "Hope And Fear." To use it, Chakotay and Kim man a shuttle ahead of the ship, to guide Voyager through the slipstream. But a miscalculation sends Voyager off-course and while the shuttle made it safely to Earth, Voyager was doomed. With the help of Borg technology from Seven of Nine's corpse, an older and remorseful Kim must evade Captain Geordi La Forge and the U.S.S. Challenger if he hopes to succeed in his quest for redemption.

4. Scorpion, Part II (Season 4, Episode 1)

After successfully negotiating an alliance with the Borg in the Season 3 finale, "Scorpion, Part II" kicks off the fourth season with the Borg agreeing to give Voyager safe passage through their vast territory in exchange for their help in defeating an emerging new threat: Species 8472. Chakotay firmly opposes the collaboration, especially when the collective sends a Borg aboard to act as a liaison, a female drone named Seven of Nine. Despite their agreement, Janeway's first officer doesn't believe they can trust their new allies.

But thanks to the neural link that Chakotay has retained from the events of "Unity," he proves to be the key to a plan to stop the Borg should they betray them. And once Species 8472 is dealt with that's exactly what they do, with Seven of Nine attempting to assimilate the ship. Remembered for the introduction of Seven of Nine , the character helped reinvigorate the series, and would go on to become one of the franchise's most beloved characters, returning in 2020 in the spin-off "Star Trek: Picard."

3. Year Of Hell (Season 4, Episode 8)

In "Year Of Hell" Voyager encounters the Krenim Imperium, a powerful empire that rules a region of space they are attempting to pass through. But little do they know that the key to the Krenim's power is a man named Annorax (guest star Kurtwood Smith), a scientist who has developed a devastating weapon capable of altering history. Annorax has been using the weapon to alter the past in the hopes of restoring his people's empire to their former glory and resurrect his long-dead wife.

While Janeway and the crew are helpless against the Krenim's weapons, they go on the run, mercilessly attacked by the Imperium wherever they try to hide. But when Annorax continues annihilating entire planets in his quest, his calculations are thrown off by Voyager's anomalous presence and they suddenly find themselves his newest target. With the ship falling apart, and time running out, Janeway may have to abandon Voyager if they are to survive. 

2. Scorpion (Season 3, Episode 26)

In the third season finale  "Scorpion"  comes face-to-face with the Borg Collective for the first time after they discover that their territory is too big to go around on their journey home. But when they discover a corridor devoid of Borg ships they at first think it's good news. Until they discover an even bigger threat: a new race of inter-dimensional beings known as Species 8472, who are destroying the Borg, and threaten Voyager as well. 

But when The Doctor develops a biological weapon capable of defeating 8472, Janeway hatches a plan to exploit the conflict between the two warring species. Though the crew is conflicted, Janeway hopes to form an alliance with the Borg, and give them the weapon that could defeat 8472. But will Janeway really help the Federation's greatest enemy defeat the only ones who have ever been able to stop them?

1. Blink Of An Eye (Season 6, Episode 12)

In Season 6's "Blink Of An Eye"  Voyager encounters a strange planet where time passes at an increased rate where one second for Voyager is nearly a day on the planet. Approaching to take a closer look, Voyager is pulled into its orbit and trapped there, disrupting the planet's natural energy field, and causing frequent seismic disruptions on the surface. Below, the people who live on the planet are in awe at the shining new star in their night's sky, not realizing that it's Voyager. 

Over the next thousand years, the planet's civilization evolves, while just days pass aboard the ship, and Voyager — which they called "the sky ship" slowly becomes part of their society's mythology. But when a brave astronaut from the planet comes to visit (guest star Daniel Dae Kim), he's suddenly confronted with the reality that his childhood heroes aren't at all what he imagined.

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Strange New Worlds Plays ‘Charades’ This Week

This discussion and review contains spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 5, “Charades,” on Paramount+.

“Charades” arrives as the fifth episode of the second season of Strange New Worlds , in the exact same space that “ Spock Amok ” occupied during the show’s first season. It’s interesting that Strange New Worlds has already fallen into this sort of routine, with the midpoint of a given season devoted to a broad comedy episode based around some bodily mishap for Lieutenant Spock (Ethan Peck).

In “Charades,” Spock is effectively made human by omnipotent aliens seeking to make “remediation” after a shuttle accident on the Vulcan moon of Kerkhov. As with so many Strange New World plots, this is something that the Star Trek franchise has done quite regularly. B’Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) was split into her human and Klingon halves in “ Faces .” Odo (René Auberjonois) was exiled from the Great Link and forced to spend half a season as a human in “ Broken Link .”

There is a recurring sense that the conflict between the two halves of Spock’s psyche, human and Vulcan, is well-trodden ground at this point in the franchise, explored by both Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. It’s revealing that “Charades” is the episode of Strange New Worlds most focused on Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) to date, and she has to content herself with a subplot like the one that Erica Ortegas (Melissa Navia) got in “ Among the Lotus Eaters .”

Still, there is a lot to like about “Charades.” As with “Spock Amok,” it benefits from pitching itself as a Star Trek comedy episode, which means that it invites comparisons to some of the franchise’s more disposable episodes like “ Rascals ” or “ Body and Soul .” This isn’t “ A Quality of Mercy ” riffing on two of the greatest episodes of television ever, “ The City on the Edge of Forever ” and “ Balance of Terror .” This is Strange New Worlds doing a competent imitation of an uneven subgenre.

More than that, it allows Strange New Worlds to lean further into its approach to Spock as a fundamentally queer character. This is not a new approach to Spock, who has had a strong queer fandom since the earliest days of Star Trek and was one half of the homoerotic couple that invented “ slash ” fiction. This is part of the reason why so many in the queer community were thrilled to see the character played by Zachary Quinto, an openly gay actor , in the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films.

To its credit, Strange New Worlds has made a conscious effort to embrace this side of Star Trek . The show has made a point to cast transgender and nonbinary performers like Jesse James Keitel and Noah Lamanna . “Ad Astra Per Aspera” was the best live-action episode of Star Trek in years because it grappled with the franchise’s historical failures in this particular area . Arguably, even the addition of “ great ally ” Carol Kane to the supporting cast of the second season plays into this.

This may also explain why Strange New Worlds is so obsessed with Spock’s body and biology. Early Star Trek shows seemed more preoccupied with Spock’s soul or his mind — his “katra.” Spock’s consciousness was often separated from his body in stories like “ Spock’s Brain ” or Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , but there was always a sense that Spock’s body was perfect for his brain; he just had to find his way back to it by reconciling his human and Vulcan halves.

In contrast, Strange New Worlds makes a point to repeatedly place Spock’s mind in a body that doesn’t belong to him and that is fundamentally alien. There is a big difference between Spock putting his katra into McCoy (DeForest Kelley) at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the body swap with T’Pring in “Spock Amok,” just as there’s a difference between Spock’s brain being removed from his body in “Spock’s Brain” and having his body transformed in “Charades.”

As with the emphasis on Una Chin-Riley’s (Rebecca Romijn) genetic modifications in “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” there is a sense that Strange New Worlds is fascinated by the shifting understanding of the self’s relationship to the body, the idea that the body that a person is born into may not be their fullest expression of self. It is a commendable and laudable approach to the material, and Strange New Worlds should be doing it more often, updating these tropes for the modern world.

Strange New Worlds hasn’t always handled this sort of subtext particularly well, with “ The Serene Squall ” stumbling somewhat clumsily into some reactionary subtext. Still, the show’s heart is undeniably in the right place, and “Charades” is best understood as an exploration of Spock’s queerness that emphasizes the performativity involved. With his “ceremonial engagement dinner” looming, this newly human Spock is forced to pretend to be Vulcan, putting on a pantomime for an audience.

Philosopher Judith Butler famously contended that “gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed.” People often play “roles” assigned to them in these social structures and are judged by how they conform to the expectations that come with those roles. Even more than the party game suggested by Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), these are the “charades” at the heart of the episode.

Spock spends most of “Charades” pretending to be something that he is not, within the rigid confines of the heavily ritualized engagement dinner. It’s very pointed that this is a performance of heteronormativity, that Spock must present himself as a viable husband to T’Pring (Gia Sandhu) for the benefit of her family. To do so, Spock must not only conceal his true identity but also suppress his true emotions. It is not an especially subtle metaphor, but that is okay — Star Trek has never been especially subtle.

That said, there is a sense in which “Charades” uses this framing to indulge in some rather cliché jokes about old-fashioned gender roles that feel lifted directly from a 1950s sitcom. When she arrives on the Enterprise , T’Pring talks to Spock about how long it took her to find the right thing to wear. Repeatedly, T’Pring’s father (Michael Benyaer) is presented as a henpecked husband, under the thumb of his wife T’Pril (Ellora Patnaik).

It is possible to read these jokes as commentary on the stereotypical norms of traditional heteronormative relationships, but it also feels like Strange New Worlds is trying to have things both ways — to acknowledge the sexism of the joke while still making the joke. That said, the episode’s broad comedy works reasonably well. In particular, “Charades” makes great use of Anson Mount, frequently cutting to Pike for deadpan reaction shots or letting him play in the background of scenes.

Of course, “Charades” inevitably runs into the same sorts of problems that routinely affect even the stronger episodes of Strange New Worlds . As with “Among the Lotus Eaters,” “Charades” is a reminder that it is impossible to do justice to a cast this size within an episodic framework with only 10 episodes in a season. So, as with Ortegas before her, Chapel is consigned to a single character-focused subplot, rather than being given her own character-driven episode.

It doesn’t help that Chapel is basically given the same arc as Ortegas, learning to be happy where she is and not to want anything more than what she already has. She shouldn’t leave the Enterprise to study archaeological medicine; she should stay there forever. It’s also frustrating that Chapel’s biggest arc in “Charades” isn’t anything she does, but a shift in how Spock sees her, prompted by Amanda’s (Mia Kirshner) observation that “it is not easy being a human who loves a Vulcan.”

Indeed, “Charades” also embodies some of the worst impulses of Strange New Worlds . The episode’s preoccupation with performativity ties into the show’s tendency to spend a lot of time performing Star Trek rather than just being Star Trek . Throughout Strange New Worlds , characters will frequently draw attention to the tropes and conventions of Star Trek as they employ them, as a way of asserting that Strange New Worlds must be Star Trek because it does the things Star Trek does.

In “Charades,” Spock essentially has to learn how to play a Vulcan. Joseph M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) even makes him a set of prosthetic ears to underscore the point. “We couldn’t do it genetically, as it might affect the care Ms. Chapel has rendered,” M’Benga explains when he presents his patient with the props. “So we made these instead.” It’s very self-aware, to the point that Spock gets lessons on “how to speak like a Vulcan” from Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), recalling the discussion of his “thing” in “ The Broken Circle .”

It’s like an acting class, with Spock learning to take direction. “Flatter, more robotic,” La’an Noonien-Singh (Christina Chong) instructs him. Ortegas adds, “Notice how I move my eyebrow, but no other muscle in my face.” Later, Pike offers some advice on best practice when faking a mind meld, “Don’t grit your teeth like that. Try maybe pretending you’re seeing something, like memories.” Spock protests, “I don’t know how to fake it.” To quote Laurence Olivier, maybe “ just try acting .”

To be fair, it is tough to play a Vulcan. Only a handful of actors have pulled it off convincingly over the course of the franchise: Leonard Nimoy, Mark Lenard, Tim Russ, Gary Graham, Zachary Quinto. “It’s the opposite of what I’ve trained for, but on the other hand it’s a challenge to try to allow the slightest, most subtle emotions,” Russ has explained . “One of my acting partners said Tuvok is the character who can play Hamlet with his eyebrow.” It is a difficult assignment.

However, as with so much of Strange New Worlds , there’s a sense that it would be more engaging to watch Ethan Peck actually do that than it is to listen to characters discuss the mechanics of it at length. Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius famously argued, “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” Maybe Strange New Worlds should waste no more time arguing what Star Trek should be, and just be it.

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The 10 standout episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series

Ready to explore (or revisit) strange new worlds and smart sci-fi adventure? Launch into the Final Frontier with our list of 10 essential episodes of the original Star Trek.

A five-year mission that's now headed into its seventh decade, the Star Trek franchise is still boldly going where no one has gone before. More installments of the franchise are on air then ever, with something to offer almost every Trekkie in its rapidly expanding universe. However, Star Trek: The Original Series is the big bang that started it all. Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision of the future — produced by Lucille Ball , no less — debuted in September of 1966 and ran for three seasons on NBC before finding new life in syndication.

While the series' Prime Directive seemed to be shredding Capt. Kirk's shirt as often as possible, our mission is to represent a variety of agreed upon classics from the U.S.S. Enterprise's maiden voyage that would delight both the original and next generation of fans.

So fire up your favorite snacks in the replicator, silence your tricorder, and beam on down our list of the 10 must-watch episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series , all of which are available to stream in remastered form on Paramount + .

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" (Season 1, episode 3)

After the Enterprise goes through an energy rift at the edge of the galaxy, Captain Kirk's ( William Shatner ) friend and shipmate, Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood), begins to develop terrifying ESP abilities that grow stronger by the minute. As he makes the transition from man to "god," he becomes increasingly more dangerous and detached from humanity. Ship psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner ( Sally Kellerman ) believes his mutation can help mankind evolve, but Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ) is adamant he must be killed before he destroys them all. Will Kirk choose his best friend over the best interests of his crew — and the universe?

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is most famous for being the second pilot filmed for the series, and introducing viewers to Captain James T. Kirk, Chief Engineer Scotty (James Doohan), and Lieutenant Sulu ( George Takei ). It's also just a great hour of sci-fi storytelling. This superior first episode seamlessly mixes action, high stakes emotions, and tough ethical questions, setting the blueprint for the franchise.

"The City on the Edge of Forever" (Season 1, episode 28)

When a time disruption from a nearby planet rocks the Enterprise, Dr. McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ) — aka Bones — accidentally injects himself with an overdose of a dangerous drug. Driven mad, he flees to the planet below and goes through the time warp, changing history and erasing the Federation of Planets from existence. Kirk and Spock follow him to set things right, and find themselves in 1930s Depression-era New York.

As they search for Bones, Kirk meets and falls in love with a social worker named Edith Wheeler ( Joan Collins ) whose fate, it turns out, will determine the course of humanity. Once again, Kirk must choose between someone he loves and the greater good. One of Trek 's most emotionally charged hours, "The City on the Edge of Forever" — scripted by Harlan Ellison — is considered by many to be the greatest episode of all-time.

"Space Seed" (Season 1, episode 22)

The Enterprise team stumbles upon the marooned S.S. Botany Bay in deep space and awakens the crew from suspended animation. They soon discover these lost spacefarers were exiled from Earth during the infamous Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, and our heroes have unwittingly unleashed a genetically enhanced super-tyrant named Khan Noonien Singh ( Ricardo Montalban ) in the 23rd century.

Montalban's magnetic, calculating would-be-ruler serves as a perfect foil for Shatner's compassionate, tactical Kirk, leading to a great one-on-one showdown between the two for control of the ship. This season one episode is the introduction of the series' most infamous villain, who 15 years later will headline Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , widely regarded as the best film in the franchise.

"Amok Time" (Season 2, episode 1)

Kirk vs. Spock! Kirk's shirt ripped open (again)! Spock in heat! This episode has everything a fan of the duo that launched a thousand slash fics could want. Every seven years, a Vulcan must return home for an ancient mating ceremony called "pon farr." When Kirk and Bones accompany him, they find themselves dealing with (farr) more than they bargained for when the Captain is forced to battle Spock in a ritual fight to the death.

In addition to the showdown between the leads, "Amok Time" has several other firsts: the first use of the Vulcan Salute, the first appearance of Ensign Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), and the first glimpse of the planet Vulcan itself. This perennial favorite is also heavily referenced in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' fifth episode — titled " Spock Amok " — on Paramount +.

"Mirror, Mirror" (Season 2, episode 4)

An away team consisting of Kirk, Bones, Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ), and Scotty are sent to an alternate dimension when they are caught in an ion storm mid-transport. This "mirror" dimension is populated by violent doppelgangers of the Enterprise crew who serve the Terran Empire instead of the Federation of Planets. The foursome must navigate the cutthroat nature of this universe and find a way back before their secret is exposed — all while surviving a mutiny to overthrow this reality's Kirk. Hip daggers, bare midriffs, and Spock's goatee are just a few of the signs that things in this universe are askew.

Although Evil Bearded Spock is certainly fun to see, George Takei gives the standout performance as a delightfully evil Sulu, complete with a badass facial scar. This episode is a highlight of the original series and forms the foundation for several stories in future Trek franchises like Deep Space Nine , Enterprise , and Discovery .

"The Trouble with Tribbles" (Season 2, episode 15)

A fan favorite episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles" is a comedic left turn that shouldn't work, but absolutely does. Starring adorable little furballs who are "born pregnant" and multiply at a rapid pace, this zany hour allows the heady sci-fi questions of morality to take a back seat in favor of punchlines and hijinks.

The actual plot of the episode revolves around Kirk protecting a supply of space grain essential to Starfleet's sovereignty over a contested planet. The fun begins, however, when Uhura picks up one of the tiny tribbles while on shore leave at Space Station K-7 and unleashes an infestation on every corner of the Enterprise — including Kirk's lunch. The Captain's exasperated responses to the growing tribble crisis are comedy gold, especially as he seems to be the only one immune to their cooing charms. "Tribbles" also features a fantastic slapstick bar fight between Scotty, Chekov, and a handful of Klingon officers for the honor of the Enterprise. This episode is a fun detour into the lighter side of the crew's five-year mission.

"Balance of Terror" (Season 1, episode 14)

Kirk and company find themselves in an action-packed showdown with the Romulans when they investigate a mysterious loss of communication with Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone. Despite a history of war with Earth, no one has ever laid eyes on an actual member of their species — until now.

As the Romulans are believed to be the violent cousins of the Vulcans, Spock becomes the subject of suspicion and xenophobia from some of the crew — particularly Lt. Stiles (guest star Paul Comi) — whose ancestors were killed in the Earth-Romulan War. The story's point-of-view shifts between the two vessels, allowing the viewer to see that the warring foes are more alike than they realize.

This season one classic features the first appearance of the Romulans — who will go on to be recurring antagonists for the heroes of the franchise. Also, keep an eye out for actor Mark Lenard as the Romulan Commander. He'll return to the series in a recurring role as Spock's father.

"The Corbomite Maneuver" (Season 1, episode 10)

While exploring an uncharted area of space, the Enterprise is pursued by a mysterious cube emitting harmful radiation. To protect themselves, they lay waste to it, and incur the wrath of Balok, commander of a technologically superior alien race. He takes control of the Enterprise's systems and declares the ship, and everyone onboard, will be destroyed in 10 minutes. A tense hour with a really wild twist ending, this installment showcases Kirk's ingenuity and characteristic refusal to lose — one of the many times the Captain will boldy bluff where no man has bluffed before.

"The Corbomite Maneuver" is also the first time DeForest Kelley (McCoy) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) played their iconic characters, although they appear earlier in the series due to NBC originally airing episodes out of production order.

"The Doomsday Machine" (Season 2, episode 6)

Our intrepid explorers receive a distress signal from fellow Starfleet ship the U.S.S. Constellation and rush to its aid. Upon arrival, they find Commodore Matthew Decker (William Windom) — the ship's commander and sole survivor — wracked with guilt and suffering from PTSD. Decker's entire crew was annihilated by a massive energy weapon of unknown origin that destroyed the entire star system.

Pulling rank, he takes command of his rescuer's ship, and puts the crew of the Enterprise in the crosshairs of the unstoppable world-killing device. Kirk, marooned on Decker's derelict starship, must figure out a way to rescue the Enterprise from both the machine and an out-of-control superior officer. Introducing a planet-ending energy weapon 10 years before Star Wars , this episode features a real nail-biter of an ending.

Fun fact for the continuity-conscious : Decker's son, Willard Decker ( Stephen Collins ), will play a prominent role in 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture .

"Arena" (Season 1, episode 18)

Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones, and an unfortunate " Redshirt " arrive at the Cestus III Outpost for a diplomatic mission and find it annihilated by an alien race called the Gorn. Seeking revenge, Kirk pushes the Enterprise to pursue the Gorn starship and destroy it. The chase leads into an unmapped sector of space ruled by a powerful force calling themselves the Metrons. Outraged by the brutality of both ships, the Metrons force the two captains to settle their dispute in a fight to the death on a desert planet. The winner will leave the sector unharmed, while the loser, and their crew, will die.

The bulk of this episode involves William Shatner being chased by an actor in a giant rubber lizard suit — and honestly, it rules. Yes, the suit looks goofy, but the showdown is fun as hell and the message of the story is classic Star Trek : sometimes there is more going on beneath the surface than we realize. Very few Star Trek villains are ever just one-dimensional bad guys, and the Gorn are no exception.

Fun fact : Ted Cassidy, who provides the voice for the Gorn captain, also provided the voice of Balok in "The Corbomite Maneuver."

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‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Kicks Off Final Season with David Cronenberg Posing a Moral Dilemma — Watch Clip

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“ Star Trek : Discovery,” the flagship series of Paramount+ ‘s “Star Trek” universe, is heading toward its ending. The series, which premiered in 2017, will premiere its fifth and final season on April 4, closing the book on the adventures of Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew.

Created by Bryan Fuller and Alex Kurtzman, “Discovery” was a prequel to the groundbreaking original 1966 “Star Trek” series, taking place a decade before the adventures of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the other iconic characters — before then jumping ahead in time to the 32nd century. The series followed Burnham, initially a science specialist and officer aboard the USS Discovery, as she adventured with the crew on missions led by a rotating series of captains, including Gabriel Lorca (Jason Isaacs), and Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) before ultimately getting promoted to commander of the ship by the third season. Since the Season 2 finale, the Discovery, and the show, has jumped far ahead of time and now takes place in the 32nd century, where Burnham and the crew have worked to rebuild the Federation following the cataclysmic “Burn” event. Season 5 sees Burnham go on one last mission through the galaxy to uncover an ancient artifact with a mysterious power. Related Stories No One Is Doing It Like Andrew Scott ‘Legally Blonde’ Spinoff Series in the Works from Reese Witherspoon at Amazon

Martin-Green leads the cast of “Discovery,” which also includes Doug Jones, Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Wilson Cruz , David Ajala, Blu del Barrio, and Callum Keith Rennie. Alex Kurtzman and Michelle Paradise co-showrun the series, and executive produce with Martin-Green, Heather Kadin, Aaron Baiers, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Frank Siracusa, John Weber, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth. CBS Studios produces the series in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment.

The first two episodes of “ Star Trek: Discovery ” season five will debut on Paramount+ starting April 4. The remainder of the 10-episode season will stream weekly on Thursdays, and the series finale will air on May 30. Watch the preview clip below.

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Star Trek's Best Sequel Was Almost a Bad Comedy

Posted: April 1, 2024 | Last updated: April 1, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Sequel Was Almost a Bad Comedy

After the milquetoast Star Trek: Generations, the release of First Contact felt like a breath of fresh air right when the franchise needed it the most. It succeeds largely as an action film, and some of the most memorable sequences involve battling the Borg on the hull of the Enterprise and Picard flexing his muscles (quite literally) in a climactic showdown with the Borg Queen. However, this action-oriented sequel was almost very different: an earlier version of the script was actually a bad comedy involving over-the-top swordfights and Data becoming best buds with Leonardo da Vinci.

Writers Wanted First Contact To Include Time Travel

To understand how Star Trek: First Contact almost went catastrophically off course, you need to know a bit more about the strange way the film was written. Producer Rick Berman was adamant that he wanted the film to involve time travel because he believed the best Star Trek stories ever told (including the film The Voyage Home and The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise”) involved temporal shenanigans. However, it was Ronald Moore and Brannon Braga who were actually in charge of writing the script, and they were determined to bring the Borg back for a big screen battle.

Going Medieval

In the spirit of cooperation, the writers of Star Trek: First Contact decided to create a story that involved both time travel and Borg. That sounded good on paper, but they soon ran into an unexpected difficulty: coming up with a time period The Next Generation crew could travel to that the franchise hadn’t previously explored. Accordingly, they toyed with the idea of using time periods like the American Civil War or even Ancient Rome, but as Moore would later jokingly recall, “Picard in a toga” is something “you don’t want to do,” preferring to put the captain in a spacesuit instead.

Star Trek: Renaissance

Eventually, though, the writers of Star Trek: First Contact created a draft of the film called Star Trek: Renaissance. This movie would have had Captain Picard trying to find where in history the Borg were hiding, and he eventually discovers stories about bizarre creatures taking over various villages during the Renaissance. His investigation leads him to a castle presided over by a feudal nobleman, but he is unable to get inside to verify the presence of his old nemeses.

Leonardo Da Vinci Did Make It Into The Franchise

In order to get inside the castle, Data ends up pretending to be an apprentice to an artist, and he even ends up becoming fast friends with Leonardo da Vinci (interestingly, a holographic da Vinci would appear only one year later in the Voyager episode “Scorpion”). Da Vinci was actually working as a military engineer for the nobleman, which is enough to provide Data and the rest of the crew access to the castle. The story would have had some crazy action (including battles that mixed swords and phasers), but as Moore recalls, “it risked becoming really campy and over-the-top.”

Picard’s Got A Gun

Obviously, the writers ditched the Renaissance idea, but not because it was going to be a bad comedy: instead, they worried that it would have been too expensive to accurately film this story and that audiences wouldn’t know enough about this time period to be engaged. Eventually, they set the movie that would become Star Trek: First Contact in a future period, which was much cheaper to film and had the novelty of showing the early dawn of the Federation. The rest of the story is cinematic history, though I must admit that the next time I watch Picard fighting the Borg aboard the Enterprise, I’ll wonder how much weirder it would be if he had a sword instead of a phaser.

Let’s be honest…a sword wouldn’t have been that much stranger than the Tommy gun, right?

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Why ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Built Season 5 Around a Classic Episode From a Legacy Series

By Adam B. Vary

Adam B. Vary

Senior Entertainment Writer

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SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in Season 5, Episode 1 of “ Star Trek : Discovery,” now streaming on Paramount+.

By the end of the episode, however, the mission has pushed Burnham and her crew to their limits, including slamming the USS Discovery into the path of a massive landslide threatening a nearby city. Before they risk their lives any further pursuing this object, Burnham demands that Kovich at least tell her why. (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.)

Kovich’s explanation evokes the classic “ Star Trek: The Next Generation ” episode “The Chase” from 1993 in which Capt. Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) — along with teams of Romulans, Klingons and Cardassians — learn that all humanoid life in the galaxy was created by a single species that existed billions of years earlier, and seeded thousands of planets with the DNA to pass along their legacy. (Along with presenting a profound vision of the origins of life, the episode also provided an imaginative explanation for why almost all the aliens in “Star Trek” basically look like humans with different kinds of forehead ridges.)

Kovich tells Burnham that the Romulan scientist was part of a team sent to discover exactly how these aliens — whom they call the Progenitors — made this happen; the object they’re seeking winds up being one part of a brand new “chase,” this time in the 32nd century, to find the Progenitors’ technology before it can fall into the wrong hands. 

“I remember watching that episode and at the end of it just being blown away that there was this huge idea where we all come from,” Paradise says. “And then they’re going to have another mission the next week. I found myself wondering, ‘Well, then what? What happened? What do we do with this information? What does it mean?’”

Originally, Paradise says the “Discovery” writers’ room discussed evoking the Progenitors in Season 4, when the Discovery meets an alien species, the 10-C, who live outside of the galaxy and are as radically different from humans as one could imagine. “As we dug deeper into the season itself, we realized that it was too much to try and get in,” Paradise says.

Instead, they made the Progenitors the engine for Season 5. “Burnham and some of our other characters are on this quest for personal meaning,” Paradise says. Searching for the origins of life itself, she adds, “feels like a big thematic idea that fits right in with what we’re exploring over the course of the season, and what our characters are going through.”

That meant that Paradise finally got to help come up with the answers to the questions about “The Chase” that had preoccupied her when she was younger. “We had a lot of fun talking about what might’ve happened when [Picard] called back to headquarters and had to say, ‘Here’s what happened today,’” she says. “We just built the story out from there.”

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In the inaugural episode of 'Schmactors,' hosts James Marsters and Mark Devine embark on a journey to explore the nuances of being actors in Hollywood. They candidly discuss their experiences with fame, and the stereotypes surrounding actors and deeply dive into their intellect beyond their screen personas. The episode features engaging conversations on topics ranging from their views on vacations and music preferences to the hypothetical choice of living in a fictional universe. To learn more about the show and send in your own questions that might get answered on the air, head over to Schmactors.com! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Star Trek: Discovery is cracking open a box Next Gen closed on purpose

The USS Discovery is on a mad chase across the galaxy for one of Star Trek’s biggest secrets

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Calling back to a single 30-year-old episode of television is a time-honored Star Trek tradition , one that’s led the franchise to some of its most fascinating detours. And in its two-episode season premiere, Star Trek: Discovery seems to be kicking off an entire season calling back to one particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

And not just any episode! The 1993 installment of Next Gen in question delivered a revelation so seemingly earth-shaking that it should have rewritten galactic politics on a massive scale. But then, as was the way in the 1990s era of episodic TV, nobody ever mentioned it again.

At least until now.

[ Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery season 5.]

Writer Michelle Paradise and director Olatunde Osunsanmi lay out the connection at the end of the first of two episodes released this week, “Red Directive.” Discovery’s mission is to follow a series of ancient clues leading to a cache of ancient technology, and to get there before a couple of professional thieves, Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufexis), do.

The technology, as Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) explains, belongs to the so-called Progenitors, a barely understood ancient spacefaring species that “created life as we know it […] every humanoid species in the galaxy.” Presumably such tech holds the key to understanding how the Progenitors did that, and how that power could be used again.

The Progenitors are from the Star Trek episode “The Chase”

Kovich also calls up a helpful video presentation of the moment the Progenitors were discovered by an assembled group of Federation, Klingon, Romulan, and Cardassian captains, including Jean-Luc Picard. But you don’t have to be a Star Trek lore nerd to know you’re actually just looking at clips from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Specifically, from the 20th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s sixth season, “The Chase,” in which Picard and crew discover pieces of a computer program hidden inside the DNA of species from dozens of different planets. Questions abound: What does the program do? And what kind of entity could have been so ancient and powerful that it had determined the genetic legacy of most of the known galaxy before sentient life had even evolved here — and then left no trace of its existence except the genetic codes themselves?

In a nutshell, the mysterious death of Captain Picard’s old archeology professor (did you know that if he hadn’t gone into Starfleet, Jean-Luc was studying to be a space archeologist? Well, now you do) sets the captain and the Enterprise on a search for the missing DNA fragments necessary to complete his unfinished work.

The action of the episode becomes a grand chase, as Klingon and Cardassian captains come to believe the program must be a great weapon or dangerous secret. Eventually Picard and his rivals all discover the lonely planet with the final DNA strain — and when they get there, some Romulans who’ve been secretly following all of them show up, too, just to make things even more tense.

In the end, the program isn’t a weapon or a secret, but a message from an ancient race of humanoids that apparently created sentient life in our galaxy as we know it.

Actor Salome Jens appears as a Progenitor hologram, and delivers a speech that’s stirring by any standard of Star Trek monologues, telling the story of a race of sentients that took to the stars and found them empty. They had evolved too early to meet other forms of sentient life, and knew that their time was too limited to ever expect to.

“We knew that one day we would be gone; that nothing of us would survive, so we left you,” Jens’ Progenitor explains. The Progenitors seeded humanoid life across the galaxy in their own image; life that tended to evolve into bipedal, tailless, largely hairless creatures with two eyes and two arms and five fingers on each hand. And they left clues in the genetic signature of their work, broken up among the stars.

Wait, was this really all about lampshading the limits of Star Trek’s alien design?

Kinda, yes! The writers of “The Chase,” Ron Moore and Joe Menosky, were inspired by elements of Carl Sagan’s Contact , but also by Menosky’s pet fascination creating an in-universe explanation for why all the common alien species in Star Trek are basically shaped like humans (albeit with latex on their faces).

In other hands, it would be hokey and trite, but even under heavy makeup, Jens sells the hell out of her single scene on voice and stance alone — it’s no wonder she was asked back to the Trek fold to play a major antagonist role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

“It was our hope that you would have to come together in fellowship and companionship to hear this message, and if you can see and hear me, our hope has been fulfilled,” the Progenitor hologram concludes, with gentle compassion. “You are a monument, not to our greatness, but to our existence. That was our wish: That you, too, would know life. [...] There is something of us in each of you, and so something of you in each other.”

But though “The Chase” carried a sweeping revelation, nothing ever really panned out from it. You’d think that a message of togetherness that fundamentally rewrote the origin of life in the universe would have to have tweaked Star Trek’s galactic politics a bit, right? Seems like this would give the Star Trek setting a radically different understanding of the origins of life than we have in the real world — this is literally intelligent design! At the very least there’d be some other characters talking about how humans and Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans and Ferengi and Cardassians and Trill and Bajorans, all share the same genetic ancestor.

But nope: The Pandora’s box of Progenitor lore remained closed. Gene Roddenberry’s successor and Trek producer Rick Berman seems to have been disenchanted with the episode’s reveal — and you can’t really blame him for not wanting to rock the whole cosmology of Star Trek in an episode that’s mostly about explaining how if you turn the DNA snippets like this they make a cool spiral. Now look at this computer screen with the spiral :

Except now, Star Trek: Discovery is opening the box and rocking the boat. This new mad, puzzle-box chase around the galaxy promises to expand on the Progenitors, an idea so big that not even The Next Generation was willing to touch it. It’s a tall order, but Discovery has never been more free to shake up Star Trek continuity than it is right now — we’ll have to wait for more episodes of the show’s final season to find out how free it intends to be.

Star Trek: Discovery is finally free to do whatever it wants

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When does the final season of 'Star Trek: Discovery' come out? Release date, cast, where to watch

It's time for U.S.S. Discovery's final mission.

Paramount+'s hit TV series "Star Trek: Discovery" is returning for its fifth and final season this week and there is a lot to look forward to.

"The fifth and final season will find Captain Burnham and the crew of the U.S.S. Discovery uncovering a mystery that will send them on an epic adventure across the galaxy to find an ancient power whose very existence has been deliberately hidden for centuries," says Paramount+ about the upcoming season. "But there are others on the hunt as well…dangerous foes who are desperate to claim the prize for themselves and will stop at nothing to get it."

"Star Trek: Discovery" debuted in 2017 and is the seventh in the Star Trek series. Here's everything you need to know about the final season of the series.

When does 'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 premiere?

The finale season of "Star Trek: Discovery" is scheduled to premiere on Paramount+ on Thursday, April 4.

The first two episodes will be available to stream on the premiere date, with new episodes dropping weekly on Thursdays. Paramount+ did not specify what time the episodes will be available on their platform.

'Star Trek: Discovery' on Paramount+: Subscribe

Kenneth Mitchell: 'Star Trek: Discovery' actor, dies after battle with ALS

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 episodes

Season 5 of "Star Trek: Discovery" has 10 episodes in total. The first two will be available to stream on April 4, with the remaining dropping weekly on Thursday on Paramount+.

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 cast

Season 5 of "Star Trek: Discovery" brings back new and old faces along with recurring guest stars. Cast members include:

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
• Wilson Cruz as Dr. Hugh Culber
• David Ajala as Cleveland “Book” Booker
• Blu del Barrio as Adira
• Callum Keith Rennie as Rayner.
• Elias Toufexis as L’ak
• Eve Harlow as Moll

'Star Trek: Discovery' Season 5 trailer

Paramount+ dropped the official trailer for Season 5 on Feb. 23.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.