I’m a Trekkie. But… I’ve only really watched the new Trek shows and films. This past summer, I decided to change that by watching Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) in its entirety.

Okay, technically, I decided to watch TOS a couple years ago. But my few halting attempts usually ended in the early first season of the show. So, this was the summer I finally decided to buckle down and actually finish it all. And it was worth the venture, as TOS gets better as it goes. I only realized partway through watching TOS that this year is the 60^th anniversary of Star Trek, so that’s cool too.

Overall, I enjoyed the show, both as a view into TV and cultural history, as well as the characters and some specific episodes’ storylines. TOS is, admittedly, dated: the effects and sets are a somewhat comical glimpse of “futurism” when compared to the largely CGI and higher-quality Enterprise of today’s Trek. (Not to mention the use of tapes in the future.) The acting and stunt fighting is over-the-top and I imagine is reflective of industry standard practice at the time. There are also smatterings of sexism throughout the series’ run that, when juxtaposed beside the show’s vision of a equal society and Earth at peace, create a weird double-standard. Some of the storylines are also quite bizarre: meetings with Greek gods, using Earth history as the basis for planets’ civilizations, Abraham Lincoln floating in space, and more. Some of the storylines have sort of a “Seinfeld effect”—they are predictable or not as engaging to a modern audience familiar with sci-fi TV in general and future Trek, though I’m sure it was groundbreaking in its time. The show itself tends to be repetitive, with many an episode in the first two seasons relying on storylines set on a colonized planet where Earth humans are living and/or on planets based on Earth or Earth’s history. Also, of course, there’s usually a hot woman there for Kirk to fall in love with, though it’s somewhat refreshing when one of the other Enterprise crewmen actually get a romantic subplot or when the woman in question is interested in Spock more than in Kirk. For all of how it reflects the era of its day, though, I still find it charming and, to quote Spock, “fascinating.”

TOS is fascinating because of the time it was made, too. It baffles me to think that this series was made before we landed on the moon. It puts into perspective how recent that event in our history was. Also, the effort the show makes to try and portray a society at peace and at harmony with Earth’s diversity is intriguing and admirable, particularly given a context of a post-World War II, Cold War, and Civil Rights Era America. It’s incredible that the show depicts a Black woman, Russian man, and Japanese man as prominent and high-ranking officers on the Enterprise. Particularly late in the show’s run, more and more episodes are explicitly focused on plots and themes surrounding racial prejudice, with the Enterprise crew fighting for unity and the show depicting tragedy as the end result of continued racial hate and discrimination. While perhaps clunkily executed from a modern audience perspective, those episodes present nonetheless very powerful messages that hold up to this day.

I was also surprised to find that the characters are treated with more complexity than I initially thought they would be. Spock in particular surprised me; he has a couple of episodes where he faces or explores intense emotion. For some reason, I had the impression that Spock exploring his human side was more a product of modern Trek, but TOS showed that this was part of Spock’s character from the beginning. It’s no surprise to me that the crew of the Enterprise became iconic. The crew who are consistent throughout the series, who become the ones we remember, really shine.

And, truthfully, the episodes where the Enterprise’s crew gets involved (versus just focusing almost exclusively on Kirk, Spock, and Bones) tend to be the best of TOS. That, and when the crew faces an intriguing or new alien threat or encounter. Preferably both. Season 3, the final season, is where the show hits its stride and does both of these more frequently than in earlier seasons. In that season, there are more episodes that focus on or include the larger ensemble cast, as well as more episodes focused on true alien encounters (versus the Earth-adjacent experiences). Given how the 3^rd season starts to feel most like the Trek I’ve loved in the modern period, it’s a shame the show never got a season 4. It would’ve been interesting to see what other frontiers the crew of the Enterprise could’ve gone to, although the movies do provide a satisfying conclusion for the show’s main cast and cement their legacy as a crew.

After watching TOS, it’s also strengthened my love for Strange New Worlds, the current running Star Trek series and my personal favorite of the shows. I do think Strange New Worlds has been the best example from the modern Trek era of honoring the legacy of the original show, as it is largely episodic and isn’t afraid to include rather bizarre mysteries reminiscent of the original. The series also has some aspects of more modern TV storytelling, mostly in how it builds some narratives across episodes, which is not a feature of TOS.  

I probably won’t watch The Original Series in its entirety again, but certainly particular episodes will be worth revisiting. I enjoyed more than just this list below, but these are my Top 10 episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series:

Honorable Mentions: the Time Travel episodes like “All Our Yesterdays,” “The City on the Edge of Forever,” and “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” are all fairly intriguing. I’m all for a good time travel story.

(10) “The Enemy Within” – This episode is about Kirk splitting into a “good” and “evil” version of himself. It’s early in the series’ run, but an interesting concept both on the science-side and the philosophy-side.

(9) “The Devil in the Dark” – A Season 1 episode that, while I think it’s become a predictable sci-fi trope today, features an alien who seems murderous, but actually ends up being sympathetic and misunderstood. Spock has some good moments in this episode, and it has some intriguing twists.

(8) “The Immunity Syndrome” – the episode description (the Enterprise finds a giant space amoeba) sounds weird, but the episode itself is really interesting and also has some good emotional moments to it. It’s a great, tense adventure that genuinely kept me on the edge of my seat.

(7) “I, Mudd” – The whole crew of the Enterprise gets involved, and Uhura has a great moment in the plot, too. Good episode for the teamwork dynamic, and Mudd is also just funny as a memorable antagonist.

(6) “Journey to Babel” – A glimpse of Spock’s backstory, as his father—the ambassador—comes aboard the Enterprise. Really great Spock episode, and intriguing conflict between alien planets gives us a glimpse at the wider world of the Federation.

(5) “Day of the Dove” – It’s the Enterprise versus the Klingons, manipulated by a mysterious space entity. This episode adds some complexity to the Klingons that’s not really present in earlier Klingon appearances.

(4) “The Tholian Web” – Spock is in command, and the rest of the Enterprise crew is heavily involved as they try to rescue Captain Kirk. Some of the best interactions between Spock and Bones are in this episode, too.

(3) “Mirror, Mirror” – The Mirrorverse is a big part of Discovery’s first season plot, so I was surprised to find that it’s actually introduced in TOS! While multiverse storylines are somewhat commonplace in sci-fi today, this episode still holds up as interesting and an early part of that trope.

(2) “The Enterprise Incident” – One of the best Star Trek episodes. Very twisty and intriguing, as well as extremely tense throughout.

(1) “The Trouble with Tribbles” – The humor in this episode holds up. It’s also a great Klingon episode, and Scotty and Chekov have some great moments too. I’ll say this episode made me laugh the most, though in terms of plot and tension, “The Enterprise Incident” is definitely the best of TOS.

Live long and prosper, Star Trek.