The essential episodes of Star Trek
Watch these 15 in order and you've got Star Trek — each pick states its reason.
- 01
Professor Robert Crater and his wife Nancy are archeologists, investigating the ruins of a civilization on M-113. Enterprise visits for the annual physical examination required by regulations, but the professor seems oddly reluctant. He insists all he and his wife need is salt to cope with the heat. Then Crewman Green dies, his face marked by odd red rings. Crater says he ate the borgia plant which contains toxic chemicals. But its symptoms do not include the red mottling. Kirk and Spock are determined to discover what's going on, and doubly so when a crewman on the ship dies the same way as Green.
- 02
The Enterprise chances across a DY-100 class ship, launched from Earth "in the 1990s". It carries around seventy people, who have been hibernating since their launch. The ship's systems revive the leader, whom Kirk soon learns is Khan Noonien Singh, the leader of a group of genetically enhanced "supermen" who nearly took control of Earth during the Eugenics Wars. They have essentially fled to the future, and with their capabilities, Khan plans to revive his campaign to place "superior" men in positions of leadership.
- 03
Miners on the mineral rich world of Janus II have begun to die horribly, burned to a crisp by the effects of a powerful corrosive. The Federation depends on these mines to supply minerals to many other worlds, so it sends Kirk and the Enterprise to investigate. But a starship, as one miner acerbically comments, cannot enter the mining tunnels. Kirk and Spock will have to use their wits to solve this problem. And they'll have to do it quickly, since the same agency has sabotaged the antique pergium reactor that maintains life support.
- 04
The City on the Edge of Forever
Ripples in time have provoked the curiosity of the Enterprise crew. One such ripple shakes the ship and gravely injures Sulu. McCoy brings him back from the brink with a powerful drug, but another ripple results in a tragic overdose, afflicting McCoy with dangerous paranoia! He beams down to the planet - the transporter was locked onto the source of the time disturbances. On the surface, he evades the landing party long enough to flee - into the past, where his psychosis results in him somehow erasing the Federation, and the Enterprise, save only the landing party. Their one chance is to use the same artifact - the self-styled Guardian of Forever - to arrive before McCoy and prevent him from changing their history.
- 05
Approaching the planet Deneva, the Enterprise encounters a private spacecraft whose pilot is flying desperately into the sun, the apparent act of a lunatic. Spock reveals disturbing news: a pattern of mass insanity that has spread across the galaxy in a nearly straight line, the current end of which is Deneva. The landing party discovers the horrifying truth - and one of them becomes its victim. Now the crew must devise a cure before Spock dies, or is driven hopelessly insane.
- 06
Spock is becoming increasing irrational, even threatening to break McCoy's neck! He can't or won't explain this behavior to Kirk, only asking to return to Vulcan. It's a request Kirk cannot grant, given the Enterprise's other business. Until McCoy tells him if Spock continues to deteriorate, he will die in days! Kirk makes the decision to take his friend back to his home world, where he learns that Spock's problem has to do with marriage...
- 07
The Halkans are a people deeply committed to peace. Kirk is trying to negotiate with them for dilithium, the rare mineral that's needed for warp power systems. But if there is even a chance their crystals will be used for violence, they cannot agree. Kirk beams back to his ship as a magnetic storm approaches - but the ship where he materializes is vastly different, run by savage opportunists, sadists, and killers. This ship, part of an Empire, will wipe the Halkans from their world and seize their crystals. Kirk must find a way to prevent that, and to return himself and his landing party home.
- 08
Enterprise discovers the wreck of Constellation, a sister ship. The only survivor is Matt Decker, the Captain. He reports beaming his crew down to the fourth planet - except that there is no fourth planet! He investigated an odd occurrence: a planet apparently disintegrating, and discovered an immense space vessel cutting the planet apart with an antiproton beam, and digesting the pieces! This machine came from outside the galaxy, a relic of a devastating war fought long ago and far away. It will carve a path of destroyed solar systems through the most populous part of the Milky Way unless Kirk and his crew can stop it.
- 09
A large diplomatic conference will take place on Babel, to discuss the contentious issue of whether to admit Corridan to the Federation. Delegates are divided, and some of their motives are less than pure. Among these delegates is Sarek of Vulcan - Spock's estranged father. Add a mysterious challenging spacecraft and a murderer aboard the Enterprise, and Kirk has his hands full. Then Kirk himself is stabbed, leaving him seriously injured at the very moment when Spock is due to donate blood so that McCoy can operate on Vulcan ambassador Sarek's damaged heart. The key to solving this puzzle will require deducing which of the many factions is willing to go to violent lengths to sabotage this conference.
- 10
Under the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty, Sherman's Planet will become a colony of whoever can best develop it. To that end, the Federation intends to ship a large quantity of quadrotriticale to that planet, and Federation Undersecretary Nilz Baris is determined that the grain will arrive, so he orders the manager of Space Station K-9 to issue a distress call! Enterprise responds to discover no emergency; Baris just wants guards for his grain. And then a Klingon ship arrives, seeking shore leave. And Cyrano Jones, an itinerant trader, also arrives, with some odd animals he calls tribbles. Some very hungry, odd animals...
- 11
Spock senses the crew of Intrepid, a starship crewed solely by Vulcans, die. Enterprise investigates, and discovers a zone of darkness which conceals the hazard: an immense yet single-celled organism which drains energy from anything it encounters, as it did the Intrepid and her crew. And unless they can discover how to destroy it, Enterprise will be next. Worse, there are signs the organism has accumulated sufficient energy to reproduce...
- 12
Enterprise responds to odd readings, which lead the crew to a planet similar to Earth, except that it is much older, and a cataclysm stripped its atmosphere away a half million years ago; it has been dead ever since. But from somewhere on that world comes a voice. Something has evidently endured 500,000 years - the last survivors of the civilization that flourished here. And all they want are the bodies of a few humans...
- 13
The Enterprise has used the "light speed breakaway" technique to travel to Earth in the year 1968, to study how humans survived the desperate problems of that era. Then, they intercept a man beaming back to Earth from at least a thousand light years away, a technical feat beyond even Federation science! Who is Gary Seven, how did he get access to such advanced technology, and why has he come to Earth? He has a story, but Kirk has trouble believing it. Worse, he has trouble knowing whether he should allow Seven to pursue his agenda, or try to stop him. One of those choices is certain to destroy the future... but which?
- 14
Captain Kirk acts strangely and ends up taking the ship into the Romulan neutral zone where they are surrounded by Romulans, the Romulan commander then takes a interest in Mr. Spock.
- 15
Janice Lester, a lover from Kirk's past, uses alien technology to switch her consciousness into his body and vice versa, so that she can take command of the Enterprise and become a Starfleet captain as she always wanted.
Shows like Star Trek
The closest matches on shared genres, ranked by match strength and popularity.
- 01Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of Stargate SG·11997–2008·Syfy
Stargate SG-1 is a science fiction series based on the original film Stargate. - 02Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of The Mandalorian2019–2023·Disney+
After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. - 03Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of Loki2021–2023·Disney+Loki follows the trickster and shape-shifter god who pops up throughout human history as an unlikely influencer on historical events.
- 04Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of Lanterns2026·HBOLanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, Earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
- 05Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds2022–present·Paramount+
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds follows Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. - 06Action·Adventure·Science-FictionThe essential episodes of Ahsoka2023–present·Disney+Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows the former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.
